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I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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I ^4e<^J.A^' 



I UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



RADICAL DISCOURSES 



RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS 



DELIVERED IN MtJSIC HALL, BOSTON, MASS., 



BY 

y 

AVILLIAM DENTON. 



cMiy 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM DENTON. 

FOR SALE BY WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY, 
158 Washington Street. 

1872, 



.3+ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year i!^72, 

By WILLIAM DENTON, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



PREPACE. 



The following discourses, with tlie exception of the 
second, which was given before the Parker Society in 
1864, were delivered in Boston Music Hall on Sunday 
afternoons, between the years 1868 and 1872, to the 
Spiritual Society meeting in that place. Several of 
them have been published in pamphlet form, and have 
met with a large sale. I send them out in a volume at 
the request of many who desire them in this more per- 
manent form, and because it is thought that they may 
thus reach and benefit some who otherwise might not 
notice them. 

William Denton. 

Welleslet, Mass., Oct. 12, 1872. 



OOE"TENTS. 



PAGE. 

MAN'S True Saviors 1 

Be Thyself 43 

The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science ..... 77 

Is Spiritualism True ? 113 

Orthodoxy False since Spiritualism is True 157 

What is Eight? 183 

Who are Christians? 2:5 

Christianity no Finality 245 

The God proposed for our National Constitution . . .277 

A Sermon from Siiakspeare 311 



MAN'S TfiUE SAVIOES. 



MAN'S TRUE SAVIORS. 



" What must I do to be saved ? " said a trembling 
jailer to his prisoners, eighteen hundred years ago. 
Since tliat time, millions, with tearful eyes, have asked 
the same question ; and even to-day multitudes pause 
for the reply. The answer given to the jailer was, 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved; " and the answer given by Paul and Silas then 
is the answer generally given by Christian clergymen 
to inquirers now. 

Webster says, that " save " means " to preserve from 
injury, destruction, or evil of any kind." Does be- 
lieving in Jesus save men in this sense ? To believe 
is to take for true what is told us by another. Will 
believing that Jesus was born of a virgin ; that he per- 
formed wonderful miracles ; that he died on the cross, 
or rose again ; that he was the son of God, or God him- 
self, or any thing else respecting him, — will this pre- 
serve men from injury, destruction, or evil of any 
kind ? 

What are the evils that afflict mankind to-day, and 
from which we need to be saved? There is none 
greater than ignorance: it is the prolific parent of 
1 1 



2 MAN S TllUE SAVIOES. 

innumerable ills — of poverty, crime, and misery — tliat 
can never be told. The ignorant man walks througli 
the world blindfolded, but with all the confidence of 
one who can see. He is always liable to fall down 
precipices and into pits, and is sure to choose a blind 
guide. Ignorant parents bring into the world children, 
that, by virtue of their generation, can never be 
healthy or wise, but must be a burden to themselves 
and their friends till death releases them. The igno- 
rant farmer knows not how to treat his land, and his 
meagre crops only half satisfy the needs of his hungry 
family. The ignorant king makes the land mourn on 
account of his folly ; and ignorant priests keep the 
multitudes who trust them constant slaves to grovel- 
ling superstitions. Ignorance fills our lunatic-asylums, 
almshouses, hospitals, and jails: it is, indeed, the 
fruitful soil in which vice of all kinds flourishes, and 
produces its baneful crops. Men drink intoxicating 
drinks, and boys learn to chew tobacco, because they 
are ignorant of the bad effects of these practices on 
the human system ; and half the licentiousness of the 
world would be removed, were the perpetrators aware 
of the suffering that invariably follows. 

Will believing in Jesus save us from ignorance ? 
will it reveal to us a knowledge of our physical and 
mental systems, and their relation to the external 
world, so that we may reap the enjoyment that springs 
from a life ordered in harmony with natural law ? 
Then, blessed faith ! it shall be the first thing incul- 
cated in the nursery ; and a college professor destitute 
of this will lack the most essential qualification. Lo- 
comotives shall carry those who inculcate it on every 



MAN S TRUE SAVIORS. 6 

train ; balloons shall drop the saving creed, printed in 
all tongues, over all lands ; and telegraphs flash the 
intelligence as wide as the race. 

Alas! Jesus himself was ignorant, — so ignorant of 
the effect of the use of intoxicating drinks, that he 
not only drank them, but, if we are to believe one of 
his biographers, he even made them for other people 
to drink. He had such an incorrect idea of the size 
of our planet, that he supposed he had seen all the 
kingdoms of the earth from the top of a Syrian 
mountain ; and was so ignorant of the inviolability of 
natural law, that he believed and taught that prayer 
could transport mountains from one locality to another. 
He never seems to have thought that the fabulous sto- 
ries of the Old Testament were other than divine 
truths, and imposed them upon his unsuspecting be- 
lievers. One of the greatest expounders of the Chris- 
tian faith, that prince of believers, Paul, says that he 
counted all things loss for the excellency of the knowl- 
edge of this same Jesus. Writing to the Corinthians, 
among whom he had preached, he says he determined 
to know nothing among them, only Jesus and him cru- 
cified ; and then declares that " the wisdom of this 
world is foolishness with God," and that " the Lord 
knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain." 
It is evident that Paul's belief in Jesus, instead of 
leading him to increase in knowledge, only led him to 
despise it. It is true that he recommends believers to 
grow in knowledge ; but it is the knowledge of Jesus 
Christ: and how much ignorance will such knowledge 
dispel ? He who grows only in the knowledge of 
Christ must be ignorant of what it is most important 
for him to know. 



4 man's tkue savioes. 

The Christian sentiment of more modern times is 
represented in one of Wesley's hymns : — 



" Nothing is worth a thought beneath, 
But how we may escape the death 
That never, never dies." 



That man's mind must be poorly stored with infor- 
mation, who is forever thinking about how he may 
escape an impossible death. 

Take Christians as a body, and how ignorant of nat- 
ural science they are ! They seem to have been influ- 
enced by Paul's advice, " Beware, lest any man spoil 
you through philosophy ; " and it is notorious, that 
generally, in the same proportion as a man becomes a 
philosopher does he become spoiled for a Christian. 
Christianity arose on the world like a baleful star ; and 
the long night of the dark ages set in, that it took the 
invention of printing and the revival of philosophical 
literature to disperse. Christianity burned the books 
of the Greek and Roman philosophers, and would 
have burned the philosophers themselves, had they 
been living, and not recanted. When Christians are 
intelligent, it is where surrounding conditions have 
made them so, and in proportion to their outgrowth 
of the original spirit of Christianity. Belief in Jesus, 
then, does not save from ignorance. 

Poverty is a great calamity. When it is so great as 
to produce hunger, it masters the man, possesses him, 
and sends him into society a human wolf. When it 
exists in less degree, it prevents a man from buying 
books, wearing good clothes, living in a comfortable 



man's true saviors. 5 

house, and compels him frequently to dwell in an un- 
healthy neighborhood. It presses a man to the earth 
under its iron heel, and crushes, too often, the manli- 
ness out of him : it fetters the soul, stultifies the intel- 
lect, makes men mean, and keeps them so. 

Will belief in Jesus cure men of poverty ? Where 
could we find a poor believer if this was true ? Jesus 
himself was poor, and very poor. He says, " The foxes 
have holes, the birds of the air have nests ; but the Son 
of man hath not where to lay his head." He was de- 
pendent, indeed, during the latter part of his life, upon 
the charity of his friends. When a tax was demanded 
of him, a miracle was wrought, so the story goes, to 
obtain the paltry amount, which the scanty purses of 
Jesus and Peter were unable to furnish. Indeed, the 
early followers of Jesus were poor almost to a man, 
and consoled themselves by saying that God had chosen 
the poor of this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of 
the kingdom. If the present believers in Jesus were 
to believe in him implicitly, and obey him fully, they 
would be equally poor. If they were to cease to labor, 
lay up nothing, imitate the birds, and take no thought 
for to-morrow, how long would it be before poverty 
would have every one of them in its grip ? Jesus ex- 
claims, " Wo unto you that are rich ! " and one of his 
poor followers, James, echoes his cry ; -while Paul says, 
" Having food and raiment, let us therewith be con- 
tent." What a poverty-stricken people we should be 
if these statements were generally believed, and the 
commands of Jesus and his apostles obeyed ! If we 
took no thought for food and raiment, we should soon 
be hungry and naked ; if we did not lay up for our- 



6 , man's thue savioes. 

selves when young and healthy, we should become 
paupers when old and infirm ; and, if we were satisfied 
with food and raiment, where would be our railroads 
and locomotives, our steamships and telegraphs ? Who 
would own a microscope or telescope ? and in what 
condition would be the arts and sciences ? It has only 
been by disbelieving Jesus, disobeying these commands 
of his, and practising the very opposite, that Christian 
nations have obtained the magnificent results of modern 
civilization. Believing in Jesus, then, does not save 
men from poverty. 

Disease is a great and widespread evil. It shrouds 
man's life with gloom ; it turns the blessings of nature 
into deadly curses ; its venom rankles in the heart, 
dims the eye, palsies the hand, and binds the tongue. 
The diseased, it is said on good authority, actually out- 
number the healthy ; and, in consequence of this, 
misery, like a dark cloud, comes between millions and 
the sun of happiness that should shine upon all. 

Will faith in Jesus bear away our infirmities, and 
make us whole, as the faith of the woman is said to 
have done, who but touched the hem of his garment ? 
What a boon to the afflicted ! We will indeed cast 
medicine to the dogs ; and quacks, apothecaries, and 
doctors, who tinker the human system, may mourn for 
the days that are gone : Jesus shall be our great 
Pliysician, and a world of his healthy believers shall 
swell to the heavens their song of praise. But the 
flying pestilence heeds not even the blood of Jesus on 
the door-post : it enters and destroys the chosen people 
no less readily than it does the Egyptians. Sickness 
lays his hand on the Jesus-believing saint as heavily as 



man's teue savioes. 7 

on the Jesus-rejecting sinner ; anS, if there is any dif- 
ference, the odds seem to be on the wrong side ; for, 
as Solomon said of the conys. Christians are " feeble 
folk." They read in their oracles, " Bodily exercise 
profiteth little ; " " Whom the Lord loveth he chasten- 
eth, and scourge th every son whom he receiveth ; " 
and, if true to their faith, they bow, and kiss the rod 
that smites them, and neglect their bodies in this world 
tliat they may save their souls in the next. Christians 
are, no doubt, more healthy tlian special classes that 
might be mentioned, but nowhere near as healthy as 
those who, having outgrown Christianity, regard it as 
a duty they owe to themselves to learn the laws of 
health, and to live lives in obedience to them. Fevers 
burn Christians, and agues chill them ; colds visit them, 
and consumption feeds upon them ; and their salvation, 
instead of placing a barrier between them and the 
enemy, like a spy in the camp, invites his approach. 
The preachers of the Christian gospel are especially a 
weak, puny, sickly set of men : a robust man among 
them is an exception. After laboring " in their Mas- 
ter's service " for a few years, they are generally broken 
down, and require trips to Europe or the Holy Land 
to recruit their health. The more sickly of them rely 
upon doctors to heal their bodies, as their church-mem- 
bers rely upon Jesus for the cure of their souls, and 
generally with as little success. 

Some fef the ancient Christians, it is true, believed 
that Christianity included a remedy of disease : hence 
James says, " Is any sick among you ? let him send 
for the elders of the church ; and let them pray over 
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord ; 



8 man's teue saviors. 

and the prayer of Mth shall save the sick, and the 
Lord shall raise him up." What an easy, cheap, and 
expeditious way is this ! But where is the Christian 
that believes in it, and practises accordingly ? He 
sends for the elders only when they happen to be phy- 
sicians, and then has more faith in their pills than 
their prayers, and in internal oleaginous applications 
rather than external ; for the experience of long ago 
has demonstrated the iiselessness of the practice that 
James recommends. 

Death is spoken of by Christians as the " king of 
terrors," at whose approach the strongest fear and 
tremble. When men become subjects of King Jesus, 
does he deliver them from this potentate ? Does he, 
at least, relieve them from all fear of what is inevi- 
table ? Then Christianity is still a boon, and its sys- 
tem of salvation worthy of acceptation ; for life has 
little charm for that man who has continually before 
his eyes the fear of death. Jesus, the object of the 
Ciu'istian's faith, died young : he could neither deliver 
himself from death, nor from the terror that it 
inspired. Hear his prayer in prospect of approach- 
ing death : " If it be possible, let this cup pass from 
me." It was not possible ; and in the anguish of his 
soul he exclaims, '' My God, my God ! why hast thou 
forsaken me ? " Unable to deliver himself, how can 
lie deliver his believers ? So overcome by terror at 
the prospect of his own death as to " sweat, a^ it were, 
great drops of blood," it is not surprising that the 
believers in him tremble at the skeleton grim. Some 
Christians, it is true, die without fear, and some with 
courage, hope, and even joy ; but we have no evidence 



man's teue saviors. 9 

that this is owing to their belief in Jesus, since it is 
true of believers in all religions, and in none. There 
is, indeed, good reason to think, even from the admis- 
sions of Christian ministers themselves, that unbeliev- 
ers, as a rule, have much less fear of death than the 
majority of Christians. " In all my experiences," 
says the Rev. Theodore Clapp of New Orleans, " I 
never saw an unbeliever die in fear. I have seen 
them expire, of course, without any hopes or expecta- 
tions, but never in agitation from dread or misgivings 
as to what might befall them hereafter. It is probable 
that I have seen a greater number of those called 
irreligious persons breathe their last than any other 
clergyman in the United States. . . . When I first 
entered the clerical profession, I was struck with the 
utter inefficiency of most forms of Christianity to 
afford consolation in a dying-hour." And this is what 
we might reasonably expect. Most Christians believe 
in a God who is angry with the wicked every day, — 
one who will damn a soul for one sin unrepented of: 
they believe in a devil of almost infinite power, and a 
hell of torment unutterable, to which the best of them 
are apt to feel that they are liable ; while the worst 
that the unbeliever can fear is an eternal sleep, in 
•which he will know no more than the violet whicli 
blooms on his grave. Your salvation, then. Christian, 
saves neither from death nor the fear of it. 

Fire, when it obtains the mastery, is an evil to be 
dreaded, and any salvation from its ravages would be 
gladly received ; but the Christian's belief does not 
save him from them. The fire licks up the very 
churches with its flaming tongue, and consumes alike 



10 man's true saviors. 

the dwelling of Christian and infidel ; and insurance 
societies are just as needful to the one class as to the 
other. 

Is the believer in Jesus any safer in a thunder-storm 
for his belief? See that church-steeple shattered, and 
the minister in the pulpit struck dead upon his knees ; 
while in awe his Christian brethren whisper, " Myste- 
rious Providence ! " 

The floods are no respecters of persons. Christians 
drown as readily as their unbelieving neighbors, under 
like circumstances. Cast a Christian and an infidel 
into the sea : which will sink first ? The one who 
knows not how to swim ; and there is more salvation 
from drowning in a cork than in the faith af the one 
or the infidelity of the other. 

In what respects, then, Christian ! does belief in 
Jesus, whom thou caftest Christ and Saviour, save 
thee at all ? " Our salvation," replies the Christian, 
'' is from sin, from the wrath of God, and from eter- 
nal torments : it concerns not itself with sickness, pov- 
erty, floods, fires, and such trivialities, but with things 
of eternal moment." If the salvation by Jesus is 
indeed a salvation from sin, we will welcome it. From 
sin, — from lying, stealing, intemperance in all its 
forms ; from anger, bitterness, and all uncharitable-, 
ness; from jealousy, revenge, and all meanness ; from 
war and all its horrors ; from crime and all its results, — 
what a salvation that would be ! I know that Jesus 
is said in Matthew to have received his name of Jesus, 
which means " saviour," because he should save his peo- 
ple from their sins ; but where are the people that he 
has saved ? Can those who call themselves Christians 



man's tkue savioes. 11 

be in reality his people ? Jesus liimself acknowl- 
edged that he was not good. When one called him 
" good Master," he said, " Why callest thou me 
good ? There is none good but one, that is God." John, 
the beloved disciple of Jesus, says, "If we say that 
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is 
not in us." It is evident, then, that he did not con- 
sider himself to be saved from all sin. 

The Christians of to-day nniversally confess them- 
selves to be sinners. In the Episcopalian church they 
repeat every Sunday morning, " Almighty and most 
merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from 
thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed 
too much the devices and desires of our own 
hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. 
We have left undone those things wliich we ought to 
have done, and we have done those things which we 
ought not to have done ; and there is no health in us. 
But thou, Lord, have mercy upon us miserable 
offenders." Very similar are the confessions of 
Christian clergymen of all denominations, reiterated 
from the pulpit every seventh day ; and the believing 
•brethren, in whose name they pray, devoutly say, 
" Amen." And, in doing so, they acknowledge the 
statement to be correct. But what worse is an unbe- 
liever than this ? Some of them are not as bad. All 
Christians pray, " Forgive us our trespasses," as Jesus 
taught his disciples to pray ; and it is evident, by his 
doing so, that he did not believe that their faith in 
him would save them from committing sin, as the con- 
fessions of modern Christians show its helplessness in 
their case. Where is the Christian that is saved from 



12 man's tkue savioes. 

sin, or that even professes to be ? Should any man 
claim to be, and he a married man, let his wife be 
questioned " separate and apart " from her husband ; 
and, if she be truthful, her statement will prove the 
worthlessness of his claim. Indeed, Christians seem 
to take pride in confessing what great sinners they are, 
and unblushingly sing, what can only be true of one 
of them, — 

" I the chief of sinners am ; 
But Jesus died for me." 

The very reason why they should not he sinners at all, 
according to their theology. What merchant will 
credit another the sooner because he is a Christian, or 
place more confidence in him when making a bargain ? 
Some have done so only to find themselves grievously 
disappointed. We are surrounded by believers in 
Jesus, — men and women who profess to have been born 
again, and passed from a state of nature into a state 
of grace ; who profess to have been saved by this great 
salvation : but where are those that never lie, nor pre- 
varicate ; who never take advantage of another in a 
bargain ; who are never angry, nor sulky, nor greedy,, 
nor refuse to help the needy ; who are temperate in 
all things, — never use tobacco or intoxicating drinks, 
nor injure their bodies by any indulgence ? Where 
are tliose that are never bigoted, intolerant, or un- 
charitable, and whose consciences absolve them every 
evening, so that they have no need to pray, " Forgive 
us our trespasses," for they have no trespasses to be 
forgiven ? The Christian Church, with all its preten- 
sions, cannot furnish a single one. What, then, are 



man's teub savioes. 13 

we to think of the statement that Jesus saves men 
from sin ? 

Christianity did not save the South from slavery, 
where it was commenced and carried on by Christians 
and Christian ministers, whose hands were strength- 
ened by their Christian brethren of the North : the 
one forged the fetters and applied them ; the other 
riveted them, and cursed in the name of Jehovah all 
who attempted to break them ; while most of those 
who wrote and lectured against slavery were men 
whom the Church branded as infidels. 

Belief in Jesus does not save men from war and 
cruelty. Christian nations have been notoriously 
fighting nations ; and Christian wars have been among 
the most cruel and bloody. " There are no wild beasts 
as ferocious as Christians who differ concerning their 
faith," said the heathen in the fourth century ; and, 
if we are better now, it is due not to the superiority 
of our faith, but to the advance which the best types of 
our race present in accordance with the operation 
of natural law. *' What a dreadful picture," says 
Dr. Dick, '' would it present of the malignity of 
persons who have professed the religion of Christ, 
were we to collect into one point of view all the per- 
secutions, tortures, burnings, massacres, and horrid 
cruelties, which in Europe and Asia, and even in the 
West Indies and America, have been inflicted on con- 
scientious men for their firm adherence to what they 
considered as the truths of religion ! " 

It must be confessed, that, if some of the teachings 
of Jesus were obeyed, war would be impossible ; but 
when he declares that the punishment of a false faith 



14 man's teue saviors. 

will be damnation, and that damnation everlasting 
fire, that man must be more than mortal who believes, 
and is not led in some degree to persecute those whose 
faith is, in his opinion, erroneous. 

Christianity does not save from intemperance ; for, 
while men almost universally believed in Jesus where 
the evil was, it grew till it overshadowed the land. It 
invaded the pulpit, and dragged to untimely graves 
hosts of the strongest Christian believers. The first 
temperance paper was published by Joseph Livesay 
of England, who was what is called an infidel ; and 
it was not till outsiders had done the heavy work, and 
they saw a prospect of assistance from it, that Chris- 
tians took much interest in the temperance movement. 
The Bible is the bulwark of moderate drinking, and 
the example of Jesus one of its principal supports. 

Christianity does not save from bigotry and intoler- 
ance. No people in our country are as bigoted as 
Christian believers ; and it is no wonder. Jesus 
looked forward to the time when he should sit on the 
throne of his glory, and say to those who had neglected 
the believers in him, " Depart from me, ye cursed, 
into everlasting fire." If he had possessed the power, 
he would evidently have given his enemies a taste of 
earthly fire, as so many of his followers subsequently 
did. Paul was charged with bigotry to the lips, and 
fulminates his anathemas like a pope's bull ; and even 
the " loving John " would have turned Theodore 
Parker out of his house in the name of Jesus, as the 
Boston Christian bigots tried to pray him out of the 
world. 

The religion of the despised Nazarene, peaceful 



man's tetje savioes. 15 

while an infant, became a fighting bully as soon as it 
could use its fists. It imprisoned, banished, and burnt ; 
it inaugurated war for the religious opinion's sake, 
and deluged Europe and Asia with blood. When this 
was over, dungeons were filled, racks invented, and 
the fagot burned the refractory sceptic that milder 
means failed to convert. Do not suppose that this 
spirit is extinct. A revival of orthodox religion is a 
revival of uncharitableness and hate ; then men 
think most of its damnatory creed ; their hatred of 
infidelity and the infidel is proportioned to their love 
of souls. Here is a prayer that was offered in the 
Young Men's Christian Association of Boston only a 
few days ago, and reported in " The Boston Herald." 
" Lord, if that infidel that Brother C. told us about is 
at work this morning writing his tracts. Lord, par- 
alyze his arm ! " Who cannot see that this praying 
brother would have paralyzed the arm himself, if he 
had possessed the power ? 

Lying clings to Christian nations as creeds do to 
Christian churches. Leading Christians are notorious 
falsifiers for God : their religious tracts and books 
abound with calumnies against unbelievers, sophistry 
and special pleading that would have disgraced a Ro- 
man lawyer in the days of Cicero ; and it is no wonder 
that they practise occasionally on their own account 
what they so frequently do for their religion and their 
God. 

It may be said, that, although Christianity does not 
save men from all sinning, it still does much to restrain 
them from vice ; and this cannot be denied. !Slo4iam- 
medanism does the same thing : it restrains its be- 



16 main's true saviors. 

lievers from the use of intoxicating drinks. Professors 
of the Christian religion are frequently restrained by 
it from the commission of such sins as the Church de- 
nounces ; but, on the other hand, the Church upholds 
sins by virtue of its belief in Christianity. It was 
thus that it upheld slavery, and to-day upholds 
woman's degradation. It has two vices peculiarly its 
own : it robs man of one-seventh portion of his time, 
which it generally employs in idleness or superstition ; 
it has invented a sin which it calls sabbath-breaking, 
and spends more time and effort to prevent men from 
committing this imaginary crime than it does to hinder 
them from doing what justice universally condemns. 
The bigotry and intolerance so generally manifested by 
it in proportion to its influence have made it the great- 
est engine ever invented to fetter the human mind ; and 
it is only as its power decreases, and the soul is liber- 
ated from its influence, that the large-brained races of 
the world attain to those results of enlightenment in 
which now even Christianity makes its boast. 

The salvation that is said to come from a belief in 
Jesus is not a salvation from sin, — nothing can be 
much more certain, — and we still ask," What does Je- 
sus save men from? " — " From the wrath of God ? " 
Does your God, then, become angry ? — he whom you 
believe made worlds more numerous than drops of 
water in the ocean by the word of his mouth ; he who is 
perfect in love, a perfect father, and we his children. I 
know men who would be ashamed to be angry, men who 
would blush to have their wrath excited by a man — 
their«e^al : and yet you believe in a God who is angry, 
and angry with man. It cannot be so. But, if so, what 



man's teue saviors. 17 

makes God angry ? You tell me it is sin ; for your 
Scriptures say that G-od is angry with the wicked every 
day. But you confess every day that you are wicked : 
how, then, can you be saved from the wrath of God ? 
If you are telling the truth morning and evening, you 
are a sinner ; and the book in which as a Christian you 
believe declares that the soul that sinneth shall die : it 
also declares that " the wrath of God is revealed from 
heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of 
men," and asks, — what should be to you a solemn 
question, — " If the righteous scarcely be saved, where 
shall the sinner and the ungodly appear ? " Your God 
must hate you if you are a ^mer : so that j^ur salva- 
tion does not even save you from the wrath of God. 

" But our faith enables us to appropriate the merits 
of Jesus, so that we receive the reward of his perfect 
obedience. Jesus is called the Lord our righteous- 
ness ; for, though we can do nothing that is acceptable 
to God, we clothe ourselves by faith with his virtue, 
and he becomes all in all to us." Can it be that I un- 
derstand you ? You may injure both your body and 
your soul by licentious indulgence ; but, by exercising 
faith in Jesus, God will reward you for his chastity. 
You may lie and steal, since these vices are human ; 
but only believe, and you appropriate the divine hones- 
ty and veracity of your Saviour, and all is well. 
What a gospel of rascality is this ! What a comfort- 
able doctrine for the man who wishes to excuse his 
shortcomings, and escape the just penalty of his mis- 
deeds ! No wonder that immorality flourishes wher- 
ever it is preached ! Under its influence men are 
content to confess themselves sinners every Sunday, 



18 man's true saviors. 

and trust in Jesus to save them ; while they are just 
as content to. go on sinning during the week : for the 
Sunday confession must be made, and thQ Sunday trust 
exercised, at all events. But it is certain that nothing 
can be more false than this doctrine. Paul truly says, 
" Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
Nothing more true, as our daily experince demon- 
strates. No man can break a physical law, and an- 
other bear the consequences ; nor can any man sin, and 
Jesus suffer the penalty for iiim ; nor did he suffer it 
eighteen hundred years ago in anticipation of the 
offences the Christian sinner would commit in coming 
time. JfBus had no merit to spare : fanatic as he was, 
he felt and acknowledged his own deficiency ; and the 
structure of the universe forbids any appropriation of 
the merits of another. 

But we are told that the salvation that comes by faith 
in Jesus saves us from eternal torments. But what 
evidence is there tliat any such torme^nt exists ? The 
very lightning tliat in its fury knows no respect of 
persons ; the bounteous rain that distributes its bless- 
ings upon all; the smiling moon, peeping into the 
fevered face of the debauchee ; the sunshine, looking 
through the gloomy bars of the prison, and whispering 
hope to the doomed criminal, that gilds alike the 
gallows and the church-vane with its glory ; the calm 
evening, cooling the sultry air, lighting the lamps in 
the hall of night, and hushing the birds, that saint and 
sinner may sleep, — all teach the absurdity of this or- 
thodox fable. Should there be any eternal torment, 
the Christian is as likely to suffer it as any, if his Bible 
in which he trusts is to be credited. It is only those 



man's tbtje savioes. 19 

who obey the commandments of Jesus that have a right 
to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates 
of pearl into the celestial city. But Christians do not 
obey them. They resist evil ; they lend, hoping for 
something ; tliey judge ; they lay up treasures on 
earth ; they take thought for to-morrow, and act in 
all respects as if Jesus had never said a word in refer- 
ence to these subjects. Jesus teaches that they only 
are founded on the rock who obey his teachings : all 
others are to be swept into perdition when the tide of 
God's wrath shall flow over a ruined world. In no 
wise is there any hope for thee, Christian : thy salva- 
tion is a sham, thy great Physician a quack ; the only 
diseases that he cures being imaginary ones that faith 
in him has produced. 

The Christian doctrine of salvation is built on the 
Christian doctrine of damnation ; and the doctrine of 
damnation rests upon the doctrine of original ein ; and 
this upon the story of man's fall from a condition of 
original purity and goodness. But of this story science 
may be said to have proved the utter falsity. Geology 
has settled the question as far as our planet is con- 
cerned. It has not fallen from an originally perfect 
condition to one in which volcanoes belch, storms howl, 
earthquakes heave and ingulf, and ferocious beasts 
devour. Geology proves, that, in all these respects, 
the world has improved, and is to-day a better abode 
for human beings than at any past period in its history. 
Archaeology, a younger sister of geology, has in like 
manner proved that man has not fallen from a state 
of sinless perfection to one in which lying, stealing, 
drunkenness, and licentiousness characterize him, but 



20 man's true saviors. 

that, from the condition of a savage, he has climbed 
during ages to the civilization of the present. The 
opinion held by those who have made archaeology a 
study is well represented in the address of Lord 
Dunraven to the Cambrian Archaeological Association : 
" If we look back through the entire period of the 
past history of man, as exhibited in the result of 
archaeological investigation, we can scarcely fail to 
perceive that the whole exhibits one grand scheme of 
progression, which, notwithstanding partial periods of 
dechne, has for its end the ever-increasing civilization 
of man, and the gradual development of his higher 
faculties." And in the statement of Sir John Lubbock, 
in the closing chapter of " The Origin of Civilization," 
" Existing savages are not the descendants of civilized 
ancestors. The primitive condition of man was one 
of utter barbarism ; and from this condition several 
races have independently raised themselves." 

Archaeology has demonstrated that chiliads of years 
before the world was made, according to biblical chro- 
nology, man in England, Scotland, France, Belgium, 
and Europe generally, was a savage. The remains of 
his cannibal feasts which have been found show the 
amazing distance that he has since travelled on the 
road to perfect manhood. What lifted him out of this 
pit, and gave to the world the architecture of Egypt, 
the art of Etruria, the poetry and philosophy of Greece, 
the morality of Gautama and Confucius, and the 
jurisprudence of Rome ? All this long before Jesus 
was born, and probably before a chapter of the Bible 
was written. That advanced man which advanced 
the planet, his dwelling-place, for millions of years 



MAI^f'S TEUE SAVIORS. 21 

before his foot trod it. What pushes-the tree on from 
the sapling, struggling for existence, to the towering 
pillar of living beauty ? The spirit in the tree, push- 
ing, urging day and night, and that never allows it to 
rest. What carried the earth upward from the monot- 
onous wilderness of heated rock to the ocean-bearing, 
lake-gemmed, mountain-crowned planet of to-day ? and 
life, from the polype of the sea-bottom to the croak- 
ing frog and the thinking man ? The all-controlling 
Spirit, never resting, never far away, as inseparable from 
the universe as a man's soul is from himself ; and this, in 
the first rude men, carried them on, awakened thought 
in their souls, lit a fire of love in their hearts, whis- 
pered of heaven in their ears, and to-day reveals to 
them a condition of perfection to which humanity 
must yet attain, and for which the best men are daily 
striving. 

Man, then, has not fallen : the foundation of dam- 
nation and the necessity for orthodox salvation is gone. 
God did not make a pure fountain, allow the Devil to 
poison it, and then compel the whole human race to 
drink of it, and at the same time threaten them with 
eternal torment if they should manifest its evil effects. 

But, if man did not fall from an originally pure con- 
dition, then he did not receive from that fall that never 
occurred a corruption of his nature, whereby he is 
" inclined to evil, and that continually." I never can 
remember the time when I was not inclined to good, 
when I did not love truth, honesty, temperance, purity, 
manliness ; and I do not believe that I am an excep- 
tion in this respect. I believe this to be the general 
feeling of all men. The protest which the soul makes 



22 man's true savioes. 

against absurd forms, useless ceremonies, and false no- 
tions, is mistaken for opposition to virtue and goodness. 
I cannot say that I was naturally fond of Sunday ; it was 
the most melancholy day of the week : nor did I take 
much delight in sermons ; not because I disliked the 
goodness inculcated in them, but because there was so 
little in them attractive to my youthful mind. The 
goodness that supports asylums, that establishes schools, 
that founds temperance, peace, and antislavery socie- 
ties, that calls for justice to woman and to the laborer, 
and that overthrows tyranny, is the goodness of 
human nature, that throbs with more or less intensity 
in every breast, and which Christianity ostentatiously 
claims for itself, while it conveniently passes over to 
the credit of what it calls " the world " the evils which 
are its own legitimate fruit. 

Are Mohammedans less temperate than the Chris- 
tians who tempt them with intoxicating drink ? Are 
Hindoos less honest than British Christians, who have 
stolen from them their country, and who enrich them- 
selves by impoverishing the inhabitants ? 

But we are told that all persons do wrong ; that is, 
they knowingly violate natural law. I grant it ; but, 
if that proves original sin, it will not be at all diflScult 
to prove original virtue. All persons do right ; and 
they do right ten times where they do wrong once. 
No man was ever known to tell more lies than, truths, 
or to be for a longer time angry than good-natured. 
The fact is, that human beings are born neither in 
virtue nor sin, but capable of both : and, with each 
succeeding age, man's ability to master his animal 
propensities increases ; and he thus grows into virtue, 



man's teue savioes. 2B 

as he does toward perfect manhood, for which he 
started at the beginning, but to which he cannot attain 
without the time essential for that growth. 

If the doctrine of original sin is false, tlien the 
notion that God doomed the race to endless perdition 
on account of a condition resulting from it is false. 
Man was never lost, nor in danger of being lost : that 
in his history that looks most like it is his belief of 
such a fable. The damnation from which Jesus is 
supposed to save men only exists in the imagination 
of those who believe in this soul-enslaving supersti- 
•tion. When I ask for the evidence on which the faith 
in eternal damnation rests, I am pointed to the 
Bible, which I am told is God's word. Before believ- 
ing such a doctrine on the statement of the Bible, you 
ought to be as certain that the Bible is true as that 
your head is on your shoulders. The very fact that 
the Bible teaches it is sufficient evidence that the Bible 
is untrue. Where, Nature, my mother ! dost thou 
teach such a horrible doctrine as these ignorant chil- 
dren of thine are blasting men's souls with ? Not in 
the south wind, that sweeps over the land to-day with 
life and beauty following in its path. Out of the cold 
arms of winter springs the land ; the loosened streams 
are leaping from the hills with musical cadence ; the 
green grass is peeping ; the buds are swelling ; and the 
long-silent birds are pouring their melody into our 
souls. How these voices give the lie to this howling 
blasphemy ! Thou sun, that turns the world over, and 
warms it into life ; that kisses the cheek of the cottager's 
child, and smiles on the beggar as sweetly as on the 
pompous bishop ; that lights up the malefactor's cell as 



24 man's teue savioes. 

gloriously as the cathedral, — thou preachest a gospel 
in which no such soul-harrowing dogma is found. 

The headache of the drunkard is but the voice of 
Nature saying to him, " Do thyself no harm." The 
burn of the child is painful ; but the pain teaches it a 
lesson that it needs to learn : and, if the burn is so 
severe that it must die, Nature wraps her arms about 
the little one, sends it into a precious sleep, and wakens 
it for a start in a higher life. 

How could damnation be the penalty for man's doing 
what by virtue of his very constitution he must do ? 
Man was as certain to sin as a green apple is to be, 
sour ; and time and favorable conditions are as neces- 
sary to cure him as to ripen and sweeten the apple. 

But, if men were never liable to damnation, the 
necessity for evangelical salvation never existed. God 
never allowed the Devil to rend the world ; and there 
never was any need for his Son to come from heaven 
to patch it. God never hurled the world into the pit 
of perdition with his riglit hand ; and there was 
therefore no necessity for him to lower the rope of sal- 
vation down with his left for the lost wretches to seize 
by faith. Men never were far from God ; and thiy 
consequently need no one to bring them nigh. They 
were never -damned, nor in danger of it; and Ortho- 
dox salvation is as unnecessary as a lightning-conductor 
in a coal-mine. 

The method by which God is supposed to save men 
through faith in Jesus shows monstrous absurdity and 
cruelty on the part of God who offers it, and great 
unmanliness on the part of those who accept it. Man, 
the finite, has sinned against an infinite God ; he has 



man's teue savioes. 25 

broken his most holy law: and God justly consigns 
him to eternal torments ; and it is only by an exercise 
of his infinite mercy that a way of escape has been 
provided. So much Orthodoxy assumes. It is evi- 
dently false ; for nothing can be more unjust or unrea- 
sonable. All men sin everywhere, and have always 
done so : it is therefore evident that wr'ong-doing is 
inevitable. What God could punish men, and, above 
all, eternally punish them, for doing what, in the 
nature of things (and these he had himself made), all 
of them must do ? Tie up your boy's legs, and flog 
him till his back is gory, because he does not run six 
miles an hour ; keep him without food for three days, 
and then kill him because he steals a crust from your 
pantry, — and you are a kind, considerate parent, com- 
pared to a God who makes men with a strong dispo- 
sition to do wrong, permits a Devil to tempt them, and 
then annexes the penalty of eternal damnation to the 
crime of wrong-doing. 

God is angry with the sinner : the wratli of his in- 
dignation boils. With the sword of vengeance in his 
hand, he is ready to strike the fatal blow. Just as the 
glittering blade is about to descend, the innocent Jesus 
appears on the stage. " Spare, oh, spare the sinner ! " 
/Says Jesus. " Only on one condition." — " Name it," 
says Jesus. " Thou must die in his stead, or my jus- 
tice can never be satisfied." — '' I will : let the blow 
descend." God plunges the sword of his justice into 
the heart of Jesus, and then receives the sinner to his 
bosom graciously ; and he goes on his way, singing, — 

" Jesus has paid the debt we owe, 
Aud God is satisfied." 



26 man's true SAVIOllS. 

To save man by such a plan, supposing it to be pos- 
sible, is to sink him in meanness and degradation. So 
instinctively do men scorn it, that mesmeric excite- 
ments, under the name of revivals of religion, are got 
lip to overcome this natural repugnance. We have 
sinned, — such is the doctrine, — and are justly sub 
ject to punishment ; but an innocent being offers to 
bear the penalty, if we will believe in him, accept him, 
and bow down to him. " No, thank you, Jesus, no ! 
I much prefer to bear the consequences of my own 
transgressions, that I may learn the lesson from them 
that nature inculcates, and whose tendency is to make 
me wiser and better. There may be men who wish to 
dodge the consequences of their deeds : they may ac- 
cept your offer ; but I cannot, — still less if, in accept- 
ing it, I am at the same time to accept of you as my 
master." If to liell I must go, I will go a free man, 
and with that sense of manhood that must transform 
the pit of perdition into paradise. 

I charge this doctrine with being not only false, but 
dreadfully pernicious. Tf Jesus bears away the con- 
sequences of our guilt, takes our place, washes us in 
liis blood, so that, though black as ink, we can in an 
instant be made white as snow, why should we struggle 
for purity ? why should we wrestle with temptations 
daily, and strive earnestly to live lives in harmony with 
our ideal of manhood ? Faith in Jesus must be of 
infinitely more importance than faithfulness to princi- 
ple : to obtain the cloak of his righteousness, and skulk 
under it, and be credited with the merit that belongs 
to another, becomes much more important than to live 
a righteous life ; and thus the Church, by its acceptance 



man's teue saviors. 27 

of this doctrine, makes men satisfied with a tenth-rate 
morality, and puts off the day of the world's redemp- 
tion. 

What, then, shall we do to be saved? Evils are 
around us like mosquitoes in July : like bloodhounds, 
whose scent can never be baffled, they dog our foot- 
steps. Not a soul but needs salvation from them : how 
shall it be obtained ? Let us see what has saved us in 
times past. 

Once, man trod the wild, a naked savage. The sun 
scorched him by day, and the cold wind chilled him as 
he lay on the branches of a tree at night. The sleet 
fell upon his bare breast, and, melting, ran in streams 
to his feet. He searched the woods for wild fruit, and 
dined on acorns, crab-apples, wild plums, and chest- 
nuts, or roots that he scratched out of the ground. At 
times, he outran the wild rabbit, sucked its warm blood, 
and ate its quivering flesh, nor thought of bettor fare. 
What saved him from this pitiable condition ? What 
taught him to build a house, clothe himself with be- 
fitting garments, and thus bid defiance to the elements ? 
Nature, that brought man into existence, did not 
launch him on the ocean of life without a pilot or 
charts, merely promising to supply them at some future 
time. She did not send Jesus with a beacon-light four 
thousand years afterwards, and make the success of 
millions of vessels depend upon their ability to see 
what to most of them in the nature of things was in- 
visible. The first man carried his savior in his soul, 
and no man since has ever been destitute ; and just in 
proportion as men have attended to this savior have 
they been delivered from evil, saved from sin and suf- 



28 man's true saviors. 

feriug, and led into truth and right, and the heaven 
that invariably accompanies them. By using his men- 
tal powers, man learned to spin and weave, and make 
for himself garments for all seasons and all weather : 
it was thus he learned to fashion the wooden club, the 
hammer and axe of stone, then of bronze, and, lastly, of 
st^el, to fell the trees, to dig the stone, to burn the 
lime, and rear his household home ; and, in process of 
ages numerous, the naked, houseless savage was trans- 
formed into artistic man. And all this long before 
Adam rose or fell, before the snake was cursed, or the 
Bible Saviour promised. 

In the times of old, man wearily wandered over the 
earth : if he wished to go a hundred miles, every step 
had to be taken by his own feet. He climbed the 
rugged mountain-steeps, waded or swam the streams, 
threaded his way through the wilderness, and with 
bleeding feet and exhausted body arrived at his destina- 
tion. He saw the wild steed ; and increasing intelli- 
gence taught him its use: with a stem- of a vine for a 
bridle, he mounted, and with exultant spirit bounded 
the country over. As his intelligence further in- 
creased, he levelled the hills, filled the valleys, bridged 
the streams, united distant lands by highroads aiid 
railroads, over which flies the locomotive, outstripping 
the eagle in its flight. 

Where we now assemble, and hundreds of thou- 
sands find ample subsistence, a hundred savages would 
have starved three hundred years ago. Take a glance 
backward, and view this region as it was. The beasts 
of the chase have fled ; deep snow covers the ground, 
and hunger dwells in every miserable hut ; hollow-eyed 



man's teue savioes. 29 

men and women look into the wan faces of their fam- 
ishing children, who vainly cry for food ; the last bone 
is picked, the last scrap of skin roasted and eaten : 
death calls them one by one, and with returning spring 
the prowling wolves pick their bones. What saves us 
from such a fate to-day ? Our increased intelligence. 
This taught us to plough, to sow, to reap ; and over our 
broad land waves bread for a world. The salvation of 
Orthodoxy never produced a blade of grass nor a grain 
of wheat : it is as powerless to stay the hunger of the 
savage as it is to quench the deep thirst of the en- 
lightened, soul. 

Ignorance once covered the land like a pall, and Na- 
ture's preachers discoursed for ages to deaf souls. The 
thought, as it slowly rounded itself in man's brain, had 
no power of projection from the mind that gave it birth, 
but lay there shrouded, and died with its possessor. 
By the development of liis inherent nature, man grew 
into speech, formed signs for sound, shaped the reed, 
and then the feather that dropped from a passing bird's 
wing ; from the waving flag by the river-side first, and 
then from a nation's tatters, brought forth paper, and 
made the wisdom of one the property of the many. 
He ransacked the sunless caves, and brought to light 
the iron and the lead, and formed the printing-press, — 
the multiplier of thought, the long-wished-for lever 
that moves the world. 

In his infancy man was terrified by eclipses that 
swallowed the day, and comets whose fiery hair 
streamed over the evening sky, and portended to him 
most fearful calamities. He saw in storms, tornadoes, 
volcanoes, and earthquakes the presence of angry gods 



30 man's teue saviors. 

or devils, whose wrath could only be turned away by 
bloody and cruel ceremonies. Science soothed and 
comforted him : she put into his hand the telescope, 
and brought these monsters of the sky into his home, 
tamed them, and they became agreeable visitants. She 
has not destroyed storms, volcanoes, and earthquakes ; 
but she has taught us how to foretell storms, informed 
us where earthquakes are most likely to occur, and 
pointed out the natural causes that produce them. 

There was a time when war was man's universal 
trade, and its curses came to every door ; when whole 
regions were ravaged, and neither age nor sex was 
spared. Man's growth in intelligence and benevo- 
lence has assuaged its horrors ; made distant nations 
acquainted, and united them by the bonds of commerce ; 
has given them peaceful pursuits, and promises in time 
to destroy all war, and usher in the reign of universal 
peace. 

Man's intelligence does not enable him to cure all 
sickness ; but it does better. It teaches multitudes liow 
to prevent sickness, and will ere long instruct all, as 
it has already by the discovery of anassthetics robbed 
pain of its terrors. 

What is it that saves us now ? It is a summer's eve- 
ning : a dark cloud rolls its sable folds over the sky. 
Who shall save us from the bolt launched apparently 
for our destruction? It strikes: we are stunned ; but 
that slender rod saved us : along it the fiery flash 
descended harmless to the ground. Franklin is our 
savior, and science instructed him. 

The rain descends in unremitting showers. The 
heavens seem dissolving, and threaten to wash tiie land 



man's true saviohs. 31 

into the sea. The river rises. Down go madly the 
rushing waters ; away the piers of the bridge are swept ; 
the bridge itself swings, sways for an instant, and is 
gone ; its timbers are hurrying down the stream. The 
toll-house still remains, a frail island in the rushing 
river ; but the waters are rising : they are washing 
away its foundations. See that boy on the housetop 
waving his handkerchief, a woman at the window, 
looking at the angry waters, and wringing her hands 
in despair ! Hear the hoarse cries of tlie father as he 
calls for help ! In vain is faith. Prayers, psalms, hymns, 
Bibles, can do nothing. Neither the vh-gin nor her Son 
can aid the perishing family, and we shudder as we see 
what must be their fate. But here comes a boat 
rowed by strong arms. They are saved ! Children, 
mother, father, all are saved just as their home goes 
dashing down the boiling flood. What saved them ? 
Science and benevolence, — science, that taught men 
to build the boat ; and benevolence, or kindly feeling, 
which is the heritage of humanity, of which no church 
has a monopoly ; which the people called wicked by the 
Orthodox often manifest more strongly tlian those they 
consider most pious : these were the saviors of this 
family, as they are the great saviors of mankind. 

It is night : the last lamp has shut its eye, and 
calmly the stars look down on the sleeping city. 
Wrapped in soundest slumber we lie as the hours uncon- 
sciously fly. We are aroused by clanging bells : what 
a glare lights up the room ! Hear the tramp of hurry- 
ing feet in the street below, and that most fearful cry 
of " Fire, fire ! " We follow the rushing throng. There 
is the building: how the flames lick it with their fiery 



32 



tongues, and then leap as if in ecstasy above their vic- 
tims ! How well it is, we think, that all have escaped ! 
But they have not. Hear those screams, louder than 
the crackling fire. It is a mother's voice, " Save, oh, 
save my child!" The flames, like fiery serpents, are 
on every side, ready to devour her, and there is no pros- 
pect of escape. "0 God," she cries in her anguish, 
" save my child ! " 

Hearts throb, and eyes are dim with tears. What 
is that rising through the smoke ? A ladder ! I hear 
the oath of the fireman, though I cannot see him, as 
he calls to his men. It is placed against the devoted 
building: the hose from a steam fire-engine play on 
each side of the window, and beat back the flames ; and 
the arms of the kind-hearted, though rough-handed 
and roiigh-tongued fireman, bear mother and baby in 
safety to the ground amid the joyful shouts of the de- 
lighted spectators. They are safe ! What saved them ? 
Prayer, in her case, was powerless as the breath that 
utered it : the salvation of the Christian, if trusted in, 
could but have paralyzed the arm of endeavor. What 
church would open its doors to the fireman that saved 
her? What future awaits him if Orthodoxy is to 
decide ? Yet he was a savior : science aided him, 
benevolence impelled him. Intelligence and love, 
man's great deliverers in every age, — they have cured 
a thousand ills under which we suflered in the past, 
and promise to cure or relieve all that remain. 

Science has sunk wells in the desert, opened foun- 
tains by hundreds in the sandy waste, and made it 
blossom as the rose. It has dug mines innumerable, 
and brought up blessings from the flinty bosom of the 



MA^'S TRUE SAVIORS. 33 

earth. It has clothed us, heated our apartments, and 
shorn winter of its rigor. It has robbed the small-pox, 
that terrible scourge, of its horrors, cleansed our cities, 
and said to the dreaded cholera, " Touch not my chil- 
dren, and do those who obey me no harm." Aided 
by benevolence, it has reformed oar prisons, and ban- 
ished the tortures that were so prevalent when the 
Church ruled the land, and the Bible was regarded as 
the fountain of all law. They have entirely changed 
the character of our insane-asylums. Wretched crea- 
tures are no longer chained in bare rooms, and left in 
nakedness, filth, and cold, to howl and scowl their mis- 
erable lives away, as they Vere. not a hundred years 
ago, but are treated with better sense and greater 
kindness, and generally restored to their friends in the 
possession of health of body and soundness of mind. 

By railroads and steamships science is uniting us 
with all mankind in bonds so firm that war can never 
sever. Already we are shaking hands with China and 
Japan. The barriers are falling that our mutual igno- 
rance erected ; and in time we shall become so well 
acquainted with other nations, and our interests be so 
inseparably connected with theirs, that war will be- 
come impossible. 

By physiology science is teaching us daily the laws 
of health, and supplying us with motives to obedience ; 
and, wherever its instructions are heeded, the average 
duration of human life is increasing. By geology it 
has enabled us to discard the old biblical fables of the 
earth's and man's creation, and shown us the orderly 
development of organic beings during ages of which 
the Jewish cosmogonist never dreamed ; and by phre- 



34 man's true saviors. 

nology it has revealed to us the cause of the strong 
propensities to wrong-doing which some persons possess ; 
and thus, by placing a double guard where the danger 
was greatest, much evil has been nipped in the bud. In 
demonstrating to us that the basis of all intoxicating 
drinks is alcohol, and that this is an acrid poison, it 
has saved countless thousands from drunkenness and 
all its attendant evils, and it will in time banish it from 
the earth. 

Science, or knowledge, does more : it robs death of 
its terrors. It has revealed to many of us a spirit in 
all organic existences, and its conscious, continued ex- 
istence in man ; and comforted millions by giving 
them the absolute assurance of life after death has 
destroyed the body. It says to the mourner, " Dry up 
your tears : they are not dead, but born anew into a 
higher life. The earth claims the body ; but that 
which you loved, the spirit that animated ft, is yet in 
existence, and you shall meet again." It reveals no 
hell, it tells of no Devil, and shows the impossibility of 
both. It preaches no forgiveness, it is true ; but it 
shows tlie possibility of outgrowing the effects of wrong- 
doing and how to enjoy by right-doing the bliss that 
invariably flows therefrom. 

What is it, my brother, that curses you, and from 
which you wish to be delivered ? There are but 
few evils from which a man cannot be saved in this 
life ; and all that this life fails to cure, the next will, 
in my opinion, accomplish. '■^ I am poor : my poverty 
troubles me." Give me your hand, my brother: I 
have been just where you are, and I can sympathize 
with you. You can be saved. If there had been as 



man's teue sa vices. 35 

much pains taken in Boston to save men's bodies as 
there has been to save their souls, you would not be 
poor. But you must never remain where you are. 
Cursed is the man who is poor ; but doubly cursed is the 
man who is content to be poor.- You must be econom- 
ical ; and I will not ask you to be more so than I have 
been. Stop tobacco chewing and smoking instantly. 
" My tobacco only costs me three cents a day." Yes ; 
but three cents a day is nearly eleven dollars a year. 
Stop that glass of lager-bier : there is no value in it to 
you, and it costs money, which you cannot afford. Let 
rich men waste money on such folly if they choose : 
you must not do it if you would conquer poverty. 
Drink no longer tea and coffee. " Why, you would 
take away all my comforts," I hear you say. When 
you have ceased from the use of them, you will find 
that it was the use that made the appetite for them, 
and caused them to appear necessary. Hot water, and 
milk and sugar taken with it, as with tea and coffee, 
is more wholesome, cheaper, and in time you will like 
it just as well. Cease eating rich cakes and lard- 
crusted pies ; live simply ; buy nothing because it is 
fashionable. You may save, the poorest of you, by 
strict economy, fifty dollars a year. Buy with that a 
piece of land (if you had what is justly yours, you 
might get it without buying) : build a house of your 
own on it as soon as possible, if there are no more than 
two rooms in it. I have lived in a house with one, 
and know the happiness of the man wlio has a foot- 
hold on this planet, and a home that does not belong 
to another. 

You are sicJc, and that makes you unhappy. But 



36 man's tbue savioes. 

what a blessing it is that the best of medicines can be 
had for nothing ! and, if you have vitaUty enough left, 
they can cure you. If not, you will be better without 
your body; and death will relieve you from its burden. 
Exercise in the open air, sunshine, pure water, plain 
food, — these are the medicines I recommend to you : 
the medicines you buy of the apothecary are generally 
as useless as they are dear. 

You are a drunkard. I do not despise you. I do 
not tell you to wash in the blood of Jesus ; for if you 
could you would be no cleaner, and the same quantity 
of whiskey would make you just as drunk. You 
must abandon all intoxicating drinks, from brandy to 
hard cider : that is the only way by which you can 
obtain salvation. In time, all taste for these drinks 
will die out, and you will be a free man. This rem- 
edy is infallible, and as good for prevention as it is for 
cure. It has saved every man that fairly tried it, and 
its benefit has been incalculable. 

You have large amativeness, and at times this pas- 
sion is your master. Do not suppose that you are the 
only man in the world in the same condition. This 
passion is the strongest ; for only by its exercise can 
the race be perpetuated. But you must not allow it 
to master you. The man, the essential man, the 
reasonable man, the moral man, must be the master ; 
and this can be done. You must be temperate in all 
things : abandon tea, coffee, tobacco in all its forms, 
and intoxicating drink in every shape. The use of 
these increases the power of the animal propensities, 
while at the same time it weakens the will, and 
obscures the judgment. Pepper, mustard, spices, and 



man's true savioes. 37 

all condiments, if used at all, should be used very 
sparingly. Never read books that appeal to amative- 
ness, and arouse it. Work hard, so that sleep will 
overtake you as soon as your head reaches the pillow. 
Do not loiter in bed after you are awake in the morn- 
ing, — not even on Sunday. Have worthy objects of 
thought, and they will banish unworthy ones. If you 
are unmarried, and over twenty years of age, find a 
suitable companion, and marry : a good wife is worth 
more to most men than a thousand Clirists. 

^' I am ignorant^ and wish to be saved." The man 
who knows he is ignorant is on the highroad to knowl- 
edge. You feel what the wisest and best have felt, 
and you have no need to be discouraged. Resolve to 
learn a little daily, and your acquisitions in a few 
years will surprise you. Read, but be sure to write ; 
think for yourself ; make some branch of knowledge a 
specialty, and give a little time to it daily. One thing 
well learned will give you a taste for many others, and 
help you to learn all others ; and you will not be 
ignorant in all respects, whatever you may still be in 
many. 

" But I fear to die."*^ Cheer up : that is the last 
thing that should trouble you. Find a good medium 
for communication with the spirit-world, and you can 
receive evidence, as thousands have done, of the 
existence of your friends, with warm and loving 
hearts, enjoying existence more than they did while 
here. Death will lead you to them, and make you 
one of their number ; and, when you are satisfied of 
this, your fear of death will be gone, and you will be 
saved. 



88 man's true saviors. 

" Is Jesus, then, a savior in no sense ? " All good 
men, and in fact all men, are, to a certain extent, 
saviors. The man who gives a hungry man a dinner 
saves him in one sense : the woman who stands by her 
friend in sorrow, and comforts her in affliction, is also 
a savior. The' wagoner who gave the young girl his 
great-coat on a wet night, — he too was a savior. 
Little is said about them ; but there are thousands of 
women who are saving men, children, and other 
women, daily and hourly. To call this fanatic of Naz- 
areth the Saviour of the world is to do injustice to the 
noblest of mankind. What a grand list is tjie list of 
saviors ! — Moses, Jesus, Confncius, G-autama, Socrates, 
Plato, Watt, Joan of Arc, Fulton, Arkwright, Her- 
schell, Thomas Paine, Theodore Parker, Fanny 
Wright, Humboldt, John Brown, Garrison, Phillips, 
and hosts of others. To many of them we owe vastly 
more than we do to Jesus ; and justice has yet to be 
done them in the more intelligent future. 

Science and benevolence, in all ages, have done the 
work of salvation, and Orthodox religion and supersti- 
tion have as constantly claimed the credit. ^' We 
have done it I " exclaim these impudent charlatans. 
" See that dashing locomotive, with a thousand pas- 
sengers at its heels ! We fashioned him with our 
hands, breathed the air of life into his iron body, and 
started him on his world-wide mission. We gave 
wings to the telegraph, life to the printing-press; and 
by us the world has advanced to the noontide of 
glory." The fact being, that they lay dozing in the 
darkened church till the scream of the engine and the- 
galvanic shock of the telegraph awakened them to a 



man's teue saviors. 39 

knowledge of their existence. Take from man all 
that science has done, and leave him all that orthodox 
Christianity can do apart from science, and what 
would he be ? No house to shelter him ; no garment 
to clothe him ; no machinery to assist him ; the 
great universe a sealed book ; himself .little more than 
a blank on one of its .pages. In a cave he would 
sleep ; and, when the sunbeams shone therein, he 
would waken to recite his prayers to the Mumbo 
Jumbo of his creed, who grumbles in the thunder, and 
shows his anger in the oak-splitting lightning. 

If science and benevolence are our great saviors, 
let us cultivate them. 

" Science is a child as yet ; but her scope and power shall grow, 
And her triumphs in the future shall diminish toil and woe." 

Let halls of science be multiplied, and opened on 
Sunday, free for all. Let us have lecturers dealing in 
facts, rather than priests dealing in fables. Instead. of 
Bible societies and tract societies, let us have societies 
for the distribution of knowledge on which the soul 
can feed, and by which man can make the most of his 
present position. Let people understand the glorious 
truths of astronomy ; and let telescopes be as plentiful 
as Bibles. Let the truths of geology, which are des- 
tined to supplant many of the fables of theology, be 
familiar to all. Let every child be taught a knowledge 
of its own body, and its relation to food, drink, air, 
light, &c. ; and thus will the ravages of disease be 
stayed, and a foundation for long life and happiness 
secured. Let the producers of the world's wealth be 
secured the product of their labor, and let all idlers be 



40 man's true saviors. 

compelled to work or starve. Let Fashion die, and Use 
and Beauty take her place, and the true millennium 
will be here. The fever-breeding swamps will be 
drained, and fruitful gardens take their place : where 
the reed and the flag grow, the apple, the pear, and 
the peach shall flourish ; the wild woods will fall, and 
stately palaces for humanity rise. The slave of capi- 
tal shall stand erect, a man, and rejoice in the fruit of 
his labor ; and the prison for the felon will be no longer 
needed. The pope and the priest, the king and the 
captain, will be loved and feared and hated no more. 
War will only be known in history, and Love shall be 
at home in every bosom. 



BE THYSELF. 



BE THYSELF. 



We live in a universe abounding with variety. 
The heavens present us with systems, suns, stars, 
planets, comets, meteors, and clouds. Systems differ 
from systems in shape, suns from suns in size. " One 
star differeth from another star in glory.'' One planet 
is belted, another girt with rings ; comets and meteors 
are as varied as their numbers. Clouds are never 
twice ahke : pile upon pile they lie, with rosy-topped 
mountain-peaks ; skip like silvery sheep across the 
blue meadow of the sky, or lie like golden islands in 
a silver sea. 

The earth is not less varied than the heavens. 
Here the mountains lift up their hoary heads in 
silent majesty, white with the snows of a thousand 
winters; and there lie the dusky valleys, ten thou- 
sand feet below them, where twilight holds continual 
holiday. The boundless plain stretches before us, 
a wide' expanse without a hillock, an ocean of drift- 
ing sand unblessed by a green blade, or a grassy 
prairie in its virgin green, or clad in flowery ^beauty j 
the placid lake, the leaping rill, the dark canon, the 
river, rolling forever on, and the ocean girt by low 
sand-banks or frowning precipices, calm as a frozen 

43 



44 BE THYSELF. 

lake, or, waked to wrath by furious storms, howling to 
the moaning of the winds. 

Nor are the organic productions of the earth less 
varied, — from the cedar that rears its symmetrical 
head three hundred feet above its roots, to the velvet 
moss that carpets the ground at its feet. The lichen 
clings to the boulder, the algae to the wave-washed 
rock; the pine's leaves are spines, while a leaf of the 
talipot palm will cover a company of soldiers. The 
condor scales with unwearied wing the heights of the 
Andes ; the katydid chirps in the meadow its evening 
hymn ; the whale floats, an island in the ocean ; the 
animalcule explores a drop. 

What diversity ! No two planets, no two animals, 
no two things, alike. Not only does the oak differ 
from the pine, and the pine from the cedar, but no 
man ever saw two oak-trees alike, nor any two leaves 
upon an oak. There are no two grains of sand alike : 
to microscopic eyes they would be as diverse as boul- 
ders. To a stranger the sheep in a flock seem all 
alike ; to the shepherd they are as different as the in- 
dividuals comprising it, and he can call them all by 
name. Nature never casts two articles out of the- 
same mold : when one is cast, she cracks the mold, 
and makes a new one for the next, and thus secures 
endless variety. 

Man is no exception to this rule. Look at the vari- 
ety of races, — the blushing Caucasian, the oblique- 
eyed Mongolian, the dark-skinned African, the black- 
haired, beardless American, the dumpy Esquimaux, 
and the spindle-shanked Australian. Heads differ, 
eyes differ, fingers differ, all parts differ, in every 
man from every other man, the world over. That 



BE THYSELF. 



45 



passing from us which is invisible to all diffeis from 
the invisible aura of others, or how could the dog 
track his master through the crowded street? There 
are said to be from three to four thousand languages 
on the globe, from the harsh and guttural Esquimaux 
to the smooth and liquid Italian. Every individual 
has, in fact, peculiarities of speech that distinguish 
him from all others. The voice reveals the person 
when we have no other clue ; and we say that is 
John, Mary, or Thomas, when the persons speaking 
are unseen. 

This variety that we thus notice in Nature is a 
continual blessing. Suppose it otherwise. Let all 
the heavenly bodies be alike in size and brightness, 
and placed at equal distances, and we should have a 
celestial checker-board, true to the line, and pretty for 
one look, but tame forever. Make all the flowers 
roses, and who would not miss the violet ? The rose 
itself would lose half its beauty for want of contrast 
with its less fair floral sisters. .If all leaves were 
alike, and all trees after the same pattern, how the 
dull landscape would fatigue the eye ! Make all men 
like pins in a paper, mold candles in a box, or shot 
in a barrel, the fat thin, or the thin stout ; elongate 
the short, or stunt the long ; give all eyes the same 
expression; make all noses aquiline or Roman, — and 
what a desert of faces would surround us I Let it 
occur to-day, what terrible mistakes would take place 
before morning I There is not an ugly sinner but 
would pray for the return of his old face to rescue 
him from the dead level of humanity. 

Minds differ more widely than faces. *' Many men, 
many minds," is a proverb as true as it is old. More 



46 BE THYSELF. 

varied- tlian flowers in the garden, leaves in the 
forest, or stars in the sky, are the minds of 
mankind. Look into our libraries and see the 
products of those minds, — books on every conceiv- 
able subject, and no two alike even on the same 
subject. 

This diflference is seen in boys as soon as the intel- 
lect is awake, and manifests itself continually. Here 
is a little mechanic saving his cents and buying a 
jack-knife, with which he whittles mimic water- 
wheels. See him in the brook, his little pants tucked 
up to his brown knees, while he rejoices, as his wheel 
spins round, like an angel over a new world. Give 
him a chance to develop in his own peculiar line, and, 
like a Watt or a Fulton, he will yoke new steeds to 
the car of progress, and drive on the world at a 
diviner speed. 

Another httle fellow is drawing horses on the barn- 
door with chalk, or making little dogs out of dough 
in the kitchen. An artist is he in the germ; full 
blossomed and fruited, the business of his thinking 
soul and obedient hand shall be to embody the 
creations of his genius, that shall bless the world 
for long centuries after he has gone to more than 
realize his most glorious conceptions in a higher 
school of art. 

Here is a born orator; mounted on a stump, he 
harangues the village boys. Proud ships may sail, 
they attract him not ; wheels may spin, what cares 
he? Could he enchain an audience by his eloquence, 
earth has no greater blessing, heaven itself could 
grant no more. To this he devotes himself; his soul 
leads, ho obediently follows, till multitudes hang 



BE THYSELF. 47 

breathless upon his words, while he talks as a spring 
leaps from the mountain-side. 

This farmer cares more for his cattle than a mon- 
arch for his crown. Spring has driven winter from 
the land, the birds are singing, and he rejoices as he 
drives his "jocund team a-field.^ Nothing could in- 
duce him to leave these incense-breathing fields for 
the diu and dust of the city ; but the merchant de- 
spises the dull round of the farmer, and is never 
happy but in the crowded mart, — a busy man among 
busy men. 

It is well that it should be so. Were all to become 
merchants, the stock would soon be spent; the river 
of commerce would dry up, for the rills of produc- 
tion would cease to flow. Were all producers, goods 
would accumulate as water does in lakes, and there 
would be no rivers to distribute the surplus to the 
needy lands." If all were poets, painters, or orators, 
bread and butter would be sadly deficient ; and if all 
were plain, prosy farmers, how much that makes life 
joyous we should lose ! 

As men's intellectual endowments differ, so do 
their moral faculties and religious sentiments. One 
is a born sceptic; he must see, hear, feel, and is 
hardly satisfied without tasting and smelling, what is 
marvellous, in order to give it credence. He may de. 
sire to believe ; but the arms of his faith are so short 
that they can not reach the distant object. Another 
believes at once : it is only necessary to present the 
statement, and he swallows it in a moment, though 
" gross as a mountain." He reads that the whale 
swallowed Jonah, and he lived three days in his 
belly; if he had read that Jonah swallowed the 



48 BE THYSELF. 

wliale, he would swallow both, and make no bones 
about either. He has no need to pray, — 

" Stretch our faith's capacity wider and yet wider still.* 

The door of his soul is wide enough to take in all 
company; no more to be reasonably praised for the 
width of his spiritual gullet, than the sceptic blamed 
for the narrowness of his. 

One is firm as a mountain : he feels like Fitz James 
when he exclaimed, — 

" Come one, come all ! This rock shall fly 
From its firm base as soon as I.'* 

Another is pliant as the wheat-stalk, that waves in 
the June breeze. 

This man is spiritual ; every breath that he draws 
is redolent of heaven ; he mounts as naturally as the 
freed bird, and carols in the sky ; that man gravitates 
to the earth like a thunder-cloud big with a shower. 

The arms of the benevolent would all mankind em- 
brace. If he were made of gold, his sympathy would 
lead him to give himself away for the benefit of man 
kind. Some such give away all that they have, and 
more than they have ; while the economical man's 
purse-strings are twined around his heart, sometimes 
with a hard-to-be-loosed knot in them, and he thinks 
ten times before he gives once. 
. If all were credulous as some, the world would 
feed on lies, and dire would be the consequence. If 
all were sceptical as others, new truths and strange 
facts might stand knocking at the world's heart for 



BE THYSELF. 49 

centuries before they gained admission. If all were 
firm and unyielding, progress would either be im- 
possible or very slow ; and, if all were equally pliant, 
revolutions would be as plentiful as showers in spring, 
and peace and stability would be at an end. If all 
were spiritual as Swedenborg in his later days, corn 
and potatoes would be sadly deficient; and if all were 
" of the earth, earthy," we should be no better than 
the savage in the wild. 

There may be too wide deviations from a normal 
standard morally, as there are intellectually; for some 
are born morally asquint, as others are physically, — 
deviations that require careful culture and training to 
overcome. But men as naturally difi'er in their moral 
natures as they do in their physical constitutions, and 
the difference thus existing is of the greatest value 
to the race. One's religion is like the sun, fervid and 
intense ; another's like the moon, calm and beautiful ; 
and another's like the stars, bright and saint-like; yet 
all lovely as the varied flowers of the meadow, or the 
tints of the evening sky. 

Hence the importance of the exhortation of my 
text, — Be Thyself. There is no originality, no 
complete manhood, without it. It is the highest pre- 
rogative of the animal kingdom, the crowning glory 
of humanity. Among the coral polyps, at the base 
of the animal kingdom, we have millions of animals 
united in one community ; what is eaten by one is as if 
eaten by all ; and the will of the individual is lost in 
that of the group, harmoniously forming their stony 
structures at the sea-bottom. Among the mollusks, 
countless multitudes lie in one oozy bed, with little 
scope, as there is little inclinatioUj for individual 

4 



50 BE THYSELF. 

action. Among the fishes there is more scope ; but, 
living in shoals, the will of one is lost in that of 
the many. Among the birds a few leaders control the 
flock. Beasts possess more independence ; but the 
strongest horse leads the band as it sweeps over 
the prairie, and the old male buffalo decides the 
course of the entire herd. Ascending to man, there 
u more individuality, and the most among the most 
highly developed. 

Even the savage is an individual who comes into 
direct communication with Nature for himself His 
parents say, ^'Shift for yourself," and Nature says the 
same. He learns where the fish hide, and he spears 
them ; he watches the beaver, and traps it, that he 
may clothe himself with its skin. He knows the 
ridge on which the chestnut grows; and, when the 
leaves fall, he makes for the winter a secret hoard. 
He builds his own tent, supplies his fire, communes 
with Nature, and forms ideas of the world in which 
he finds himself. But he must be obedient to his 
chief, even to death; and his individuahty is sacri- 
ficed continually. But here is the philosopher in 
whom humanity blossoms, and brings forth fruit. In 
liim we see the highest exemplification of self-hood. 
In him Nature's great endeavor is fulfilled, her work 
of the ages is completed. Reason sits on the throne ; 
and the lawless propensities are subject to her sway. 
He reads, hears, investigates; and what his judgment 
decides upon, that he does, and hears the continual 
plaudit of a good conscience, saying, " Weil done ! '' 

The benefits that flow from the exercise of this 
self-hood are inconceivable. Among men who prac- 
tice it are Emerson, tlie most original mind on thia 



BE THYSELF. 51 

continent, and whose private life is pure as his intel- 
lect is clear ; Garrison, whose manliness no force 
could bend, and whose love for the bondman was 
only equaled by a fearless denunciation of his op- 
pressors ; in science, Lyell, Darwin, Huxley, Spen- 
cer, Draper, independent free-thinkers, who are de- 
livering the world from ignorance, enlarging the 
domain of thought, and breaking the bonds of priestly 
bigotry and intolerance. On the other side are the 
tools of Popish superstition, who dare hardly call 
their souls their own ; with whom the word of a 
priest is potent as a law of God; who kneel, and swal- 
low the God baked but yesterday by the cook, and 
dare not open their shutters to let in one ray of 
heaven's pure light ; the slaves of Episcopal dominar 
tion, whose priests swear never to be wiser than the 
Thirty-nine Articles, and who must perjure themselves 
if they ever step beyond the narrow, creed-made pale 
that the first step of an infant mind would almost 
overstride ; and, along with these, the mihions of 
abject ecclesiastical subjects, whose spiritual bond- 
age is their pride, and who tremble when they hear a 
free thought, lest the heavens fall, or the earth gape, 
and swallow both speaker and hearers. 

The world's heroes in poetry, philosophy, mechan- 
ics, and reform, have been heroic by virtue of their 
self-hood. Leave this out of the composition of a 
man, and you have, in poetry, a verse-wright who 
never dared to write an original line ; in philosophy, 
a peddler of defunct ideas ; and in war, a poltroon. 
What made Homer the prince of song, and enabled 
the old "blind man of Ohio " to chant a strain which 
the hills of Greece echoed for centuries, still heard 



52 BE THYSELF. 

across the wild oceao, and amid the din and roar of 
this nineteenth century ? He wrote in his own inimi- 
table style the beautiful thoughts that crowded into 
his brain : from the heaven of his own creation, he 
poured down those melodies which a busy world on 
tiptoe stands to hear. 

Who was Shakspeare's model? Whence did he 
draw the supplies of which milHons have drunk and 
been refreshed ? With no broken pitcher did he go 
to another's well, but drew from the exhaustless foun- 
tain of his own soul. He stands to-day like a granite 
mountain, whose head is lost in the clouds, and whose 
culminating point no traveler has reached : as men 
ascend, untrodden bights lie still above them. Had 
he been a mere imitator, the molehill of his produc- 
tion would have been long since trodden to the dead 
level of the plain. 

How did Bunyan write his " Pilgrim's Progress " ? 
As the brook babbles, taking no counsel of other 
brooks, but telling its own story in its own way; and, 
in spite of its many absurdities, the tinker's book will 
live for centuries. Copernicus and Galileo, taking 
counsel of their own souls, heeding not the monkish 
fable-mongers who believed the world to be flat as 
a table, and the stars little shining points, boldly 
marched into the untrodden realm, explored its seas 
of worlds, and came back laden with glorious truths. 

Columbus, advising with no Past, old and decrepit, 
who had bounded the world, and inscribed on its 
boundary, " No more beyond," launched his bark to 
cross the unknown ocean ; and for weary weeks and 
months sailed steadily on, on, — the cloudy sky above, 
the inky sea around, — spite of the frowns, tears, and 



BE THYSELF. 53 

entreaties of the cowards who accompanied him, till 
a new world, like a radiant maiden, leaped into his 
arms, and blessed him for his manliness. We are here 
to-day because Cokimbus dared to be himself. 

It was this self-hood that made Raphael the prince 
of painters, and Napoleon of warriors. ''He does not 
fight according to the rule," said the European fogies. 
No ; but he had a rule of his own to fight by, and thus 
he conquered. In Watts, it gave us the steam-engine, 
with its hundred hands and its restless soul ; and in 
Fulton, the boat that heeds not wind or tide, whose 
steam-arm paddles day and night, and never tires. 
By it, Socrates climbed the hights of philosophy, 
from which it was but a step to the heaven into 
which he entered. 

Mere imitators in art never scale the hights ; but, 
placing their feet in the prints left by former travel- 
ers, they tire themselves out with a step that is un- 
natural to them, and faint and die by the way, leaving 
no sign behind that they have ever been. In lifers 
battle, they never make heroes, but wearing another 
man's armor which never fits them, and wielding a 
weapon never made for them, they accomplish little, 
and fall an easy prey to the enemy. 

Of the hundreds who have imitated Shakspeare, 
how many live in remembrance? They have gone 
like the smoke of the Indian wigwam from our land, 
while he shines on like a star. Books written by 
these imitators are mere repositories of twaddle, 
mountains of chaff, great in bulk, but small in nutri- 
ment for the hungry soul. A bonfire of them would 
give more light to the world than they can give in 
any other way. Most of our theological works are 



64 BE THYSELF. 

of this class, — embalmed hosts of dead men's foolish 
thoughts • a library of them is a catacomb or a mum- 
my pit ; how useless to look for light or life in them ! 
Men throw overboard their own thoughts, richer than 
pearls, and load their barks with cast-off, water-worn 
shells of conservatism. 

Books written by thinkers — men who thought and 
dared to express their thoughts — are always worth 
reading. I care not whether their authors were 
Atheists or Methodists, Heathen or Mohammedan; the 
life's blood of the author circulates through them, 
and in reading you feel its pulsations. But books 
written by men who never saw through their own 
eyes, who never put out their hands, and felt the 
world for themselves, nor took one manly step, are 
the faintest echoes from the distant hills, compared 
with the heaven-shaking thunder that produced 
them. 

Self-hood is as necessary in religion as in art. sci- 
ence, and literature. The world has been cursed for 
centuries by men who have sought to shape the reli- 
gious element in all after the same model. Placing 
the soul of man in the crucible of sect, it has been 
melted down, and poured into some creed-made mould: 
its beauty marred, its original proportions destroyed, 
it stands a monument of man's folly, a warning to all, 
and speaks in loudest tones the language of my text, 
Brother, sister, be thyself ! 

All great religious reformers have acted more or 
less on this principle. The more fully they have 
carried it out, all other things being equal, the wider 
has been their sphere of influence, and the more 
good they have accomplished. What enabled Moses 



BE THYSELF. 55 

to rise above the multitude, like a mountain in the 
midst of a vast plain, so high, that, at the distance of 
thirty-fivo hundred years, he stands out still in bold 
relief against the horizon? What magic was there in 
his name, that Oblivion swallowed it not with the mil- 
lions that have disappeared in his never-to-be-satisfied 
maw? Snapping the fetters with which the priests 
of Egypt sought to bind his soul, he listened to the 
promptings of his heart as it taught him a better reli- 
gion than he had ever before heard ; and he hesitated 
not to obey its requirements. Leaving behind him 
the enchantments of Egypt, and the pleasure of Pha- 
raoh's court, he became a wanderer in the desert, — 
an excellent place for a man to commune with him- 
self. Thence he came, and stamped his soul upon the 
Jewish nation. 

He dared to think for himself on religious matters, 
to face the great universe and question it; and with a 
rare originality he taught his countrymen a religion — 
the answer, as he believed, to his questions — far in 
advance of its predecessors. But every Jew had just 
as much right to question for himself and cherish the 
answer as he ; but this Moses would by no means al- 
low : the answer to him must be the answer for all. 
Hear him ! '' If thou wilt obey the statutes and com- 
mandments that I command thee this day, then blessed 
shaltthou be in the city and in the field; blessed in 
thy going-out, and blessed in thy coming-in ; blessed 
in thy basket and in thy store. But, if thou wilt not 
obey them, cursed shalt thou be in the city and in the 
field ; cursed in thy going-out and coming-in, in thy 
basket and in thy store." Liberty, spontaneity, self- 
hood, all must be sacrificed to rigid conformity. The 



66 BE THYSELF. 

Jew must be a Mosean, or destruction awaited him. 
Moses regards the seventh day as hoHer than all others, 
and consecrates it to rest for all generations ; and the 
independent Israelite, who gathered sticks upon that 
day, is stoned tp death. Moses thought an angry God 
could be appeased by burning sheep, oxen, and doves ; 
and the man who has advanced beyond this, who does 
not believe that God can be pleased with the smell of 
roasting beasts, must kill and roast his cattle notwith- 
standing ; for Moses speaks, and will be obeyed. 

You tell me that Moses received his commandments 
from God ; yes, from the God that is in you and me, 
and in the same way that we receive ours. He talked 
with him as we talk with him when we converse with 
our brother ; and he saw him as we see him in the 
starry sky, or the grassy spear at our feet pointing 
heavenward. Man three thousand years ago was no 
nearer to God tlian we are to day ; and the Nev7-Eng- 
land thinker can see God on Mount Katahdin as well 
as Moses did on Sinai. 

Moses thus became the model man for the whole 
Jewish nation. Every child was taught, that just in 
proportion as he became like Moses, was he a true 
man, and sure of God's blessing ; as far as he fell short 
of this, so far had he departed from the right, and was 
subject to a curse. 

After the death of Moses, he was elevated by priest 
and Levite, sabbath after sabbath, and feast after 
feast ; his holy law unrolled, and weekly read to the 
assembled multitude. Moses was king, the children of 
Israel his subjects. Moses was the die, and the Jews 
the coin, stamped by the repeated blows of their priests 
with his image and superscription. To be like Moses 



BE THYSELF. 57 

was the highest ambition of the noblest and best; 
greater than he could ho man be ; to be wiser was im- 
possible, and to dream of being better was blasphemous. 

Thus crept the nation snail-like through the dull 
centuries; an oppressive ritual upon their backs like 
a mountain of lead, and Moses before them, a dark 
cloud shutting out the blue sky from their wistful gaze. 

But Nazareth produced a man who refused to bow 
any longer to the God, Moses, that had been set up. 
'' One man dared to be true to what is in you and me." 
In an age of slaves he was free ; in an age of cowards 
he was a hero. While the whole nation was crawling 
in the dust, Jesus stood upon his feet, and allowed 
his manhood to speak. " Ye have heard that it hath 
been said by them of old time (that is, by Moses and 
the Moseans), An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a 
tooth : but I say unto you, Eesist not evil ; but who- 
soever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to 
him the other also.'^ " Again : ye have heard it hath 
been said by them of old time. Thou shalt not for- 
swear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine 
oaths ; but I say unto you. Swear not at all. Let your 
communication be, Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : for whatso- 
ever is more than these cometh of evil." We find him 
saying, in opposition to old Jewdom, "Why judge ye 
not of yourselves what is right ? '' He proclaimed 
himself Lord of the sabbath, as every sensible man is, 
and boldly set at defiance all who attempted to fetter 
his soul. What a consternation was there among the 
scribes and Pharisees, the soul-mongers of Judasa 1 
"Have you heard that mechanic of Galilee, who ia 
traveling about the country preaching heresy? He 
addressed a rabble the other day, when he made him- 



58 BE THYSELF. 

self superior to Moses, and set at naught the Jaw givea 
by Grod himself on Mount Sinai. I understand that he 
has been saying, Why judge ye not what is right your 
selves? thus making men their own lawgivers, and 
taking away the necessity for our services. He is a 
bold blasphemer, whose mouth must be stopped ; away 
with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him, he 
is not fit to live ! " The multitude echo the cry, " Away 
with him, crucify him ! " and bo they did ; and doubt- 
less thought there was an end of his doctrine, and 
their craft was forever safe. Never did men make a 
greater mistake. Bury a truth and it is a seed ; it 
springs up, grows, and bears fruit a thousand-fold. 
Kill a reformer, and his ghost does a hundred times 
more than the man could ever have done if alive. 
The doctrine of Jesus could not be killed, and his 
death seemed to give it life ; it spread far and wide; 
mounted the hills, crossed the valleys, was wafted over 
the seas ; it mounted the throne of the Caesars, and 
conquered the conquerors of the world. Now the de- 
spised Nazarene, the young reformer of Galilee, has 
become the esteemed Saviour. While he lived, he 
was no better than the publicans and sinners with 
whom he associated ; he had a devil, and was mad ; 
he was a pestilent fellow, whom no Jewish aristocrat 
would be seen in company with for the world. But 
now he is a good man, a great man, a prophet ; nay, a 
greater prophet than Elias himself, then the greatest 
and best man that ever lived ; the Son of God, yea, the 
only-begotten Son of God ; and lastly, God Almighty 
from heaven 1 Men were not satisfied until they had 
unseated the Omnipotent, and set the man Jesus upon 
his till one. This is the way the world serves reform- 



BE THYSELF. b\) 

ers ; there is nothing too vile to say about them while 
they are alive, and nothing too good when they are 
dead; and the world has accepted their doctrine. 

Moses was now dethroned, and Jesus made king ; 
henceforth all must be his obedient subjects. Moses 
was knocked unceremoniously off the pedestal, Jesus 
placed thereon, and made the model for the whole 
human race. " Looking unto Jesus " now becomes 
the duty of all. The path of life bears the impres- 
sions of his feet, and it is our duty, not to make our 
own impressions, but walk implicitly in his ; for ^' he 
has left us an example, that we should tread in his 
steps." 

Thus have men destroyed one idol and set up anoth- 
er; and the business of our modern scribes and phari- 
sees is to induce people to worship it. In the name 
of Jesus the freeman, souls are robbed of their birth- 
right, and the most terrible threatenings denounced 
against those who, like him, dare to be themselves. 
In the name of humanity, I protest against this. Jesus 
our helper, our friend, our teacher, but never our 
master or tyrant, who holds the lash of future torment 
over the trembling captive. 

Supposing the Jesus of the New Testament to be 
the veritable God-man, who lived and died that we 
might live, his example is not such as it would be well 
for mankind generally to follow. Could each man be 
a Jesus, it would still be infinitely better to be him- 
self Looking at his character, as drawn by his lour 
biographers, let us see what would be the consequence 
of a universal attempt to imitate the example of Jesus. 

He lived to be above thirty years of age, yet never 
was married, never had a wife to call him husband, 



60 BE THYSELF. 

nor a child, father. On one occasion he said, " There 
are some eunuchs which were so born from their 
mother's womb; and there are some eunuchs which 
were made eunuchs of men, and there be eunuchs 
which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom 
of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let 
him receive it." Paul, who seems to have regarded 
Jesus as a perfect example, never was married, and he 
advised others to imitate him, as he did his master. 
Suppose men universally were to shape themselves 
thus after this model, would not the consequence be 
most disastrous? The whole world a Shaker commu- 
nity, and in less than a hundred and fifty years a wil- 
derness of wild beasts without a human inhabitant. 

According to Mark, Jesus worked at the trade of a 
carpenter. At the age of thirty he abandoned his 
business and went out to preach the Gospel. Walk- 
ing by the sea of Galilee he found Simon and Andrew, 
James and John, fishing ; he called them, saying, ^^ I 
will make you fishers of men ; " they left their fishes 
and nets, and followed him. Matthew sat at the re- 
ceipt of custom ; Jesus passed by, and said, ^' Follow 
me ; " and, strange to say, although a Jew, he left his 
mone3^-gathering business, and followed Jesus. When 
he had in this way taken twelve men from their avo- 
cations, and they and a multitude were assembled to- 
gether, he preached to them thus : " Take no thought 
for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink ; 
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not 
the life more than meat and the body than raiment? 
Behold the fowls of the air ; for they sow not, neither 
do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heaven- 
ly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than 



BE THYSELF. 61 

they ? Why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider 
the liHes of the field, how they grow : they toil not, 
neither do they spin. Therefore take no thought 
saying. What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or 
wherewithal shall we be clothed ? For after all these 
things do the Gentiles seek ; for your heavenly father 
knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Seek 
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and 
all these things shall be added unto you. Take, there- 
fore, no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall 
take thought for the things of itself." Again he says, 
*• Sell that ye have, and give alms," Suppose that men 
were to commence imitating J^sus in this respect. 
The tailor leaves the shopboard and cloth, the black- 
smith the hammer and anvil, the farmer the plow, and 
the weaver the loom ; millers cease to grind, and bakers 
to bake, and each commences to preach ; and as they 
preach, they say, " God has given you life, will he not, 
also, give you food to sustain that life? Cease working, 
then, and trust in him. He has given you bodies with- 
out any effort of your own ; will he not much more 
clothe those bodies without any labor on your part? 
Look at the sparrows and the pigeons ; they neither 
sow nor reap, and yet God feeds them. Consider the 
wild roses ; see how beautiful they are, and how well 
clothed ; the purple robe of a king is not equal to theirs, 
and yet they neither spin nor weave. Therefore take 
no thought about what you shall eat or wear, but trust 
in God, who feeds the sparrows and clothes the grass, 
and it will all be well." 

The consequences of generally practicing such un- 
phiiosophical doctrine would be starvation and ruin. 
It might answer well for Jesus and his disciples to do 



62 BE THYSELF. 

thus, for others were sowing, reaping, baking, and fish- 
ing for them, and supplying their necessities. If it 
bad not been so, their preaching and practice would 
have by no means corresponded ; for they would have 
discovered that loaves do not grow on bushes, nor 
clothes on trees, and that though birds may be fed 
without sowing and reaping, it is otherwise with hu- 
man beings. 

On one occasion, Jesus went into the temple, and 
found there money changers, and the sellers of oxen, 
sheep, and doves; and after he had made a scourge of 
cords he drove them out, poured out the changers^ 
money and overthrew the tables ; this, too, after preach- 
ing non-resistance to its utmost extent. An imitation 
of such conduct would hardly be tolerated, nor would 
its influence be beneficial. His denunciation of the 
Sci ibes and Pharisees is terrible ; they were surely 
not all bad, all "serpents " and of the " generation of 
vipers," all "fools and blind; " yet he makes no excep- 
tions, but fulminates his woes against them in the most 
offensive manner. If the}^ were thus bad, how much 
would his denunciations do toward reforming them? 
And among a large class like this, there must have been 
some noble characters. 

He told his disciples in the beginning of his minis- 
try not to preach his doctrines to the Gentiles, and 
states himself that he preached in parables that others 
" seeing might not see, and hearing, they might not 
understand." When the people ask him ver}^ reason 
ably for a sign of his Messiahship, he calls them an 
" evil and adulterous generation." He makes himself 
tbe head, and teaches that all are to be subordinate to 
him. "One is your master, even Christ;" "I your 



BE THYSELF. 63 

lord and master." If a city would not receive Ms dis- 
ciples, nor Lear their words, as they wandered round 
rehearsing the gospel of the Nazarene, when they de- 
parted from it they were to shake off the dust of their 
feet as a testimony against it, and he informs them 
that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Go- 
morrah in the Da}^ of Judgment than for that city. 
He seems to have had some of the feeling that exists 
in the little souls of our sectarian bigots. Their sect 
is comprised of the chosen few, to whom it is the 
Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom. They 
are not of the world, and they will have the pleasure 
of seeing the destruction of their enemies, those who 
would not believe, bow down to, and support their 
church. The notions of Jesus with regard to proper- 
ty, praj^er, and non-resistance, are very far from rea- 
sonable ; and though he said and did many excellent 
things, taking the narratives concerning him to be 
true, still it is evident that he is no model for the race. 
And of this the church generally seems to be aware, 
though professing continually to practice his precepts 
and live his life. Jesus says, '^ Lend, hoping for nothing 
again ; " but where are the Christians that do it? Do 
outsiders demand six per cent, ten per cent, or two 
per cent a month, if they find any one whose necessi- 
ties compel him to pay such usurious interest, then 
(Christians do the same ; and no difference, in this re- 
spect, is observable between them. Jesus said, "Re- 
sist not evil, and if any man smite thee on the one 
cheek, turn the other also ; " " Love your enemies." 
Christians generally pay no more attention to these 
commands than if they had never been uttered ; in 
fact, every sect has made an artificial Jesus of its own, 



64 BE THYSELF. 

generally less fanatical and extravagant^ and more 
fashionablt; and better suited to the times. We have 
a Quaker Jesus, who wears a broad-brim, and says 
^' thee," who never enters a " steeple house," and looks 
upon music and dancing with horror. The Methodist 
Jesus believes in class-meetings where every one tells 
his experience ; in prayer-meetings where men and 
women shout and scream as if God was afar off or 
asleep, and has great faith in John Wesley's sermons 
and the Methodist discipline. The Episcopal Jesus, 
unlike the real one, thinks much of forms and cere- 
monies, loves the tones of a solemn organ, and the dim, 
religious light that streams through a stained glass 
window ; believes in the thirty-nine articles, and thinks 
the creed of Athanasius, "which in damning souls is 
very spacious," one of the best compositions outside 
of the Bible. The Shaker Jesus believes in " Mother 
Ann," regards marriage as a mortal sin, thinks all the 
world Sodom, and Shaker communities so many Zoars 
to which the righteous Lots have fled from the impend- 
ing destruction. 

This conduct is probably better than it would be to 
follow literally the example of Jesus, for this, we have 
seen, would be most disastrous. The obligation of my 
text is strengthened, then, by our review of the life of 
Jesus and the conduct of his so-called Church. Man, 
woman, be thyself, and thou shalt be as great as Jesus, 
too, or greater than he. 

In obedience to this principle, Luther, singlehanded, 
coped with the banded hosts of Popery, shook the 
triple-crowned Pope himself, though sitting on the 
throne of ages, made the Roman hierarchy tremble at 
the sound of his name, and delivered from priestly 



BE THYSELF. 65 

tyranny a host of noble souls. Had be been content 
to shroud his manhood in the monk's cowl, and keep 
down the rising aspirations of his soul, we might still 
have been moping about in the dark night of priest- 
craft, by the pale light of the stars, nor dreaming of a 
dawning day, and he, a poor Popish slave, had crept 
long since to the silent grave. 

Had he been more faithful to his soul, walked accord- 
ing to its dictates without looking to the right or the 
left, we might have been much farther advanced to-day. 
What a multitude of Lutherans are wearing his cast- 
off clothes, ragged and thread-bare, fitting no one, in 
place of their own natural and beautiful apparel! 

George Fox was a poor shoemaker in Drayton, Lin- 
colnshire. Feeling the fire of truth burning in his 
bosom, he went out to warm the cold, dead world with 
its divine influence ; casting down his boots and lasts, 
he went forth to preach the Gospel. What Gospel ? 
The Gospel of George Fox, and no other. And this 
poor shoemaker, with no more than an ordinary amount 
of brain and intelligence, shook every steeple in the 
land. Bold, fearing nothing when his soul led the 
way, pre-eminently self-reliant, and ever turning to 
" the light within," we find him entering the old vaults 
of gloomy superstition, club in hand, breaking the sec- 
tarian images, opening the prison doors, flashing light 
into the dark corners, and enforcing by precept and 
example the sentiment of my text. When the priests 
heard that the " man with the leather breeches '^ was 
coming, they left their pulpits and fled ; and George 
mounted the deserted pulpits and distributed to the 
famished multitude the bread of life. At one time we 
find him wading through the bogs of Ireland, at another 



66 BE THYSELF. 

roaming in the wilds of America. The phlegmatic 
Hollander is stirred by the indefatigable Drayton shoe- 
maker, nor could the cold prisons of England quench 
the fire of his zeal. Had all the Quakers been as 
much themselves as George, the promised millennium 
had dawned long ere this. This, alas ! they never 
dreamed of being. George was good, great, and use- 
ful; and they, to be so, mast be like him; the nearer 
the resemblance the better. He wore a broad-brim, 
had no collar on his coat, said "thou" and "thee;'' 
and every genuine Quaker does the same to this day ; 
and should he depart from the faith, he is soon told 
" Thee is not following Friends' rule." When George 
went into a church, he kept on his hat, to show that 
he had no faith in " holy houses ; " the Quakers, imi- 
tating their model man, wear hats in their own meet- 
ing-houses, which no one regards as holy, and that to 
the detriment of their health. Unfortunately George 
could not sing, and had a small organ of ideality, so 
that he had no taste for pictures, and little or none for 
the fine arts generally. Henceforth, every Quaker 
must be dumb ; music is a sin, and paintings and 
sculpture awful waste of time and labor. Friends' 
meeting-houses are built like barns, and their worship 
is so dead and monotonous that the young gladly escape 
from it to something more attractive. The spirit may 
move one Friend to sing as much as it does another to 
preach ; but all singing spirits are " demons," and 
must be exorcised. In short, every Quaker must be 
a Fox, whereas to be a man, he must needs be himself. 
John Wesley was somewhat manly ; and his obedi- 
ence to himself, despite of ecclesiastical laws, made 
him a reformer; but when he said to the members of 



BE THYSELF. 67 

his cliurch, " It is your business to obey our rules, 
and not to mend them/' he evidently did not intend 
others to be as noble as he had been. 

If thou wouldst be a man, bend at the shrine of no 
mortal ; walk in no pathway because others tread it ; 
be thy cwn leader, thy own sect ; when all are so, then 
will come the true church. Who was Wesley, that 
thou shouldst be a Wesleyan? or Luther, that thou 
shouldst be a Lutheran? or Christ that thoa shouldst 
be a Christian? all men; art thou not equally so? 
When the priest threatens thee with damnation, and 
would load thee with his gyves to secure thy soul's 
salvation, say, "Hands off, sir! I am, also, a man! 
Eather let me be lost, being a free man, than be saved 
to be an eternal slave ! " 

Sects are engines that crush the soul ; priests 
direct them ! Keep out of their power. They are 
sand-pits where ignorant or interested men pretend 
to dig treasures ; keep from their brink ; once enter, 
thou mayest lose the light of day. They are man- 
traps set on " holy ground ; '' beware of them ; let 
not thy feet wander on their domain. 

But, says an objector, some men's sense of right is 
very defective, and when they think they are doing 
right they are really doing wrong. I most willingly 
grant it ; but what then ? Shall we tell the man that 
he must do what he thinks is wrong ? or shall we tell 
him that we are right and he must bow to our author- 
ity? This would make the man a slave, and that 
could never be right. If a man should be so blinded 
as to conscientiously believe right to be wrong and 
wrong to be right, I should still say to him, "Do 
what you believe to be right, but the consequence of 



68 BE THYSELF. 

your ignorance will fall upon your head." Whether 
men sin ignorantly or willfully, they suffer, and this 
suffering tends to make them wiser continually, — 
tends to bring their sense of right side by side with 
Nature's actual right. 

But, says another, must man discard all models, 
cast aside all examples, refuse all guides ? Destruc- 
tion would assuredly be his fate. There is no neces. 
sity for this ; all models, all examples, all guides are 
useful to enable us to form our own. A man's model 
must be in his own soul, all others with which he is 
conversant assisting in forming it. 

Ever there floats before the real 
The bright, the beautiful ideal. 
And as, to guide the sculptor's hand, 
The living forms of beauty stand, 
Till from the rough-hewn marble starts 
A thing of grace in all its parts, 
So ever stand before the soul 
A model, beautiful and whole : 
The perfect man that we should be, 
Erect in stern integrity. 
Keep this, oh soul, before thy sight, 
And form the inward man aright. 

Be true to this model to-day, and to-morrow it is 
fairer and more beautiful and perfect, always advan- 
cing as we advance, and ever before and above us 
beckoning us on. All we read, hear, and learn helps 
us in the formation of this true self that must be our 
model ; hence we must disdain no advice, even from 
a child. We all have much to learn. Moses, Jesus, 
and Joseph Smith may teach us something; let us 
thankfully receive all they can give. But let no 



BE THYSELF. 69 

man take us off our feet ; let the officious help- of 
none prevent us from exercising our faculties and 
unfolding ourselves in accordance with our own 
Jaw. 

Religious imitators, like all others, fall short of 
their original, and copy its defects, rather than its 
excellences. The Pharisees imitated the sectarian 
pride, the narrow-souled bigotry of Moses, who could 
see no virtue outside of the tents of Israel, rather 
than the wisdom that dictated sound laws, and the 
meekness that is said to have characterized their 
model man. Of the million imitators of Jesus, we 
have many that can denounce with his vehemence, 
proclaim damnation to all unbelievers, and speak of 
outsiders as " dogs ; " but how few imitate his manli- 
ness, his contempt of riches, his active benevolence 
and unswerving adherence to right ? Of the thou- 
sands of Quakers who imitate the little, and in some 
cases ridiculous, peculiarities of George Fox, where 
will you find the man as bold and self-reliant as he, 
daring to utter his thoughts though they differ from 
those of every living mortal? 

Absurd imitation of the past has characterized the 
masses in all ages. The worship of the Greek and 
Roman deities continued after all faith in them was 
gone. Altars smoked and priests officiated in the 
temples long after the gods had departed ; for the 
dead absurdities of the Past ruled the living Present; 
and even the philosophers did not possess sufficient 
self-hood to throw off their allegiance to the defunct 
tyrants. In our own time, the foolish dictates of 
fashion are scrupulously obeyed by millions who 
know no higher law; and multitudes of intelligent 



70 BE THYSELF. 

men and women become the mere playthings with 
which she sports at her pleasure. 

Instead of one fashion-monger dictating to the 
world, how much better would it be if all developed 
their natural taste and love of the beautiful, and 
dressed accordingly. How much we lose from the 
stupid folly of those who allow the taste of one, oj: it 
may be the lack of taste in one, to govern and mold 
the whole. 

All who take the privilege of being themselves 
should be equally willing to give the same privilege, 
and not seek to impose their conditions upon others. 
The water is very well for a fish to live in, but a poor 
place for a bird ; and though grass makes a good din- 
ner for a horse, a lion would soon starve on it. The 
road I travel may suit me, but what right have I, 
when others are unwilling to go the same way, to 
knock them down and drag them into it? Every 
planet may revolve on his own orbit, so it comes into 
collision with no other ; and there is room in the wide 
universe even for the eccentric comet. 

Many reformers decry and despise those who are 
operating in other fields. Their pet reform is the one 
upon which the world hangs, or the central sun 
around wliich the universe revolves. All others are 
fragmentary, theirs integral. Men advocate one re- 
form, read about it, hear every one talk about it 
where they lecture, until it assumes a mountain mag- 
nitude and shuts out all else from their gaze. The 
Temperance Reformer says nothing can be done to 
elevate and bless the masses till they are made sober, 
for drunkenness is the parent of crime and misery. 
Let all become temperate and the day of the Lord is 



BE THYSELF. 71 

at hand ; and he is astonished that all reformers do 
not lend their aid to the great work until it is accom- 
plished. The Antislavery Reformer assures us that 
slavery is the curse of curses ; the canker-worm that 
is eating out the nation's heart ; the sum of all villa- 
nies ; a fire burning to the lowest hell. Hence the 
Antislavery Reform is the most important; all others 
are comprehended in it, and he who does not advo- 
cate it is recreant to truth and duty. 

The Land Reformer is certain that his reform un- 
derlies all others, — the soil must be the foundation. 
Let the land be equally divided, or every man have 
possession of what he can cultivate, and poverty, and 
the vice and misery consequent upon it, will flee, and 
the golden age return. Slavery could not exist, in- 
temperance would be no more, and the voice of re- 
joicing would be heard through all the land. 

" This reform all should labor for," says he. 
" Hold ! " says the advocate of Woman's Rights. 
" Men are what their mothers make them, and they 
make bad laws because women who mold them are 
robbed of their rights, and hold a degrading position 
in the world. Give woman her true position, edu- 
cate her for her high destiny, and every reform will 
follow, as spring the flowers when summer warms 
the soil." 

All these are useful, all necessary ; but no one or 
two reforms include the whole. Make the world 
sober to-morrow, licentiousness, tyranny, war, and 
ignorance would still abound; destroy slavery, and 
an army of evils would still remain for the reformer 
to combat. 

" Find thy work and do it,'' my brother, my sister. 



72 BE THYSELF. 

The business of one is to enter the untrodden wild, 
axe in hand, and with sturdy strokes bring to the 
ground the giant trees ; of another, to grub up the 
bushes and pile the brush for burning; the work of a 
third, to turn up the virgin soil to the sun's bright 
eye, while others follow to scatter broadcast the good 
seed, attend the growing crops, and gather in the glo- 
rious harvest. All are necessary ; none can say, '^ I 
have no need of thee ; " for the final result can only 
be obtained by the diversified labor of all. 

Heed not the teachers who tell thee to deny and 
crucify thj^self Thou art thy own law, thy own 
Bible, thy own model. There are no Scriptures so 
sacred as those written in thy soul ; read them care- 
fully, and obey them faithfully, ever seeking for new 
light to scan aright their pages, from the world 
around thee, transcribed in books, or engraven upon 
the ever-living page of Nature herself. So shalt thou 
develop into a noble, sound, whole-souled being, 
happy in thyself, and difiusing happiness, as the rose 
its fragrance, to all around. 

Be thyself; a nobler gospel 

Never preached the Nazarene ; 
Be thyself; 'tis holy Scripture, 

Though no Bible lids between. 

Dare to shape the thought in language 

That is lying in thy brain ; 
Dare to launch it, banners flying, 

On the bosom of the main. 

What though pirate knaves surround thee ; 

Nail thy colors to the mast ; 
Flinch not, flee not ; boldly sailing," 

Thou shalt gain the port at last. 



BE THYSELF. 73 

Be no parrot, idly prating 

Thoughts the spirit never knew ; 
Be a prophef of the God-sent, 

Telling all thy message true. 

True, the coward world will scorn thee, 
Friends may fail, and fiends will frown ; 

Heaven itself grow dark above thee, 
Gods in anger thence look down. 

Heed not ; there's a world more potent 

Carried in thy manly heart ; 
Be thyself, and do thy duty ; 

It will always take thy part. 

If the God within say, " Well done I ** 

What are other gods to thee ? 
Hell's his frown ; but where his smile is, 

There is heaven for the free. 



THE DELUGE. 



THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 
OF MODERN SCIENCE. 



If the Bible is God's book, we ought to know it. 
If the Creator of the universe has spoken to man, 
how important that we should listen to his voice and 
obey his instructions ! On the other hand, if the 
Bible is not God's book, we ought to know it. Why 
should we go through the world with a lie in our 
right hand, dupes of the ignorant men who preceded 
us? It can never be for our soul's benefit to cherish 
a falsehood. 

Science is, perhaps, the best test that we can apply 
to decide the question. Science is really a knowl- 
edge of what Nature has done and is doing; and 
since the upholders of the divinity of the Bible be- 
lieve that it proceeded from the Author of nature, if 
their faith is true, it cannot possibly disagree with 
what science teaches. 

Science is a fiery furnace, that has consumed a 
thousand delusions, and must consume all that remain. 
We cast into it astrology and alchemy, and their ashe& 
barely remain to tell of their existence. Old notions 
of the earth and heavens went in, and vanished as 

77 



78 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

their dupes gazed upon them. Old religions, old 
gods, have become as the incense that was burned 
before their altars. 

I purpose to try the Bible in its searching fiie. 
Fear not, my brother : it can but burn the straw and 
stubble ; if gold, it will shine as bright after the fiery 
ordeal as before, and reflect as perfectly the image of 
truth. 

The Bible abounds with marvellous stories, — stories 
that we should at once reject from their intrinsic im- 
probability, not to say impossibility, if we should find 
them in any other book. But, among all the stories, 
there is none that equals the account of the deluge, 
as given in the sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters of 
Genesis. It towers above the rest as Mount Wash- 
ington does above the New-England hills ; and, as 
travellers delight to climb the loftiest peaks, I sup- 
pose that many would be pleased to examine this 
lofty story, and see how the world of truth and 
actuality looks from its summit. 

According to the account, in less than two thou- 
sand years after God had created all things, and pro- 
nounced them very good, he became thoroughly 
dissatisfied with every living thing, and determined 
to destroy them with the earth. He thus expresses 
himself: '^I will destroy man, whom I have created, 
from the face of the earth, — both man and beast, and 
the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it 
repenteth me that I have made them." Again he 
says to Noah, " The end of all flesh is come before 
me ; for the earth is filled with violence through 
them, and behold I will destroy them with the 
earth." 



OF MODERN SCIENCE. 79 

Why should the beasts, birds, and creeping things 
be destroyed ? What had the larks, the doves, and 
the bob-o-links done ? What had the squirrels and 
the tortoises been guilty of, that they should be 
destroyed ? 

He proceeds to inform Noah how he will do this : 
"And behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters 
upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the 
breath of life, from under heaven ; and every thing 
that is in the earth shall die." And we are subse- 
quently informed that " every thing that was in the 
dry land died." But why not every thing in the sea ? 
Were the dogs sinners, and the dog-fish saints ? Had 
the sheep been more guilty than the sharks ? had the 
pigeons become utterly corrupt, and the pikes re- 
mained perfectly innocent? It may be, that the 
apparent impossibility of drowning them by a flood 
suggested to the writer of the story the necessity of 
saving them alive. 

But Noah was righteous ; and God determined to 
save him and his family, eight persons, and by their 
instrumentality to save alive animals sufficient to 
stock the world again after its destruction. 

To do this, Noah was commanded to build an ark, 
three hundred cubits long, fifty broad, and thirty 
high. It was to be made with three stories, and fur- 
nished with one door, and one window a cubit wide. 
Into this ark were to be taken two of every sort of 
living thing, and of clean beasts and of birds seven of 
every sort, male and female, and food sufficient for 
them all. 

There are differences of opinion about the length 
of the cubit : most probably it was about eighteen 



80 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

inches ; but taking it at twenty-two inches, the largest 
estimate that I believe theologians have made, the 
ark was then five hundred and fifty feet long, ninety- 
one feet eight inches broad, and fifty-five feet high. 
Leaving space for the floors, which would need to bo 
very strong, each story was about seventeen feet 
high; and the total cubical contents of the ark were 
about one hundred and two thousand cubic yards. 
Scott, in his commentary, makes it as small as sixty- 
nine thousand one hundred and twenty yards ; but the 
necessity for room was not as well understood in his 
day. Each floor of the ark contained five thousand 
six hundred and one square yards, and the three 
floors sixteen thousand eight hundred and three 
square yards, the total standing-room of the ark. 

Into this were to be taken fourteen of each kind of 
fowl of the air or bird. How many kinds or species 
of birds are there ? When Adam Clarke wrote his 
commentary, two thousand three hundred and sev- 
enty-two species had been recognized. Ornithology 
was then but in its infancy, and man's knowledge of 
living forms was very limited. Lesson, according to 
Hugh Miller, enumerates the birds at six thousand 
two hundred and sixty-six species ; Gray, in his 
" Genera of Birds," estimates the number on the globe 
at eight thousand. Let us not crowd Noah, but take 
the six thousand two hundred and sixty-six species ol 
Lesson. Fourteen of each of these would give us eighty- 
seven thousand seven hundred and twenty-four birds, 
— from the humming-bird, the little flying jewel, to the 
ostrich that fans the heated air of the desert, — or 
over five for every yard of standing-room in the 
ark. If spaces were left for the attendants to pass 



OF MODERN SCIENCE. 81 

among them, to attend to the supply of their daily 
wants, the birds alone would crowd the ark. 

But, beside the birds, there were to be taken into 
the ark two of every sort of unclean beast and fourteen 
of every sort of clean beast. The most recent zoo- 
logical authorities enumerate two thousand and sixty- 
seven species of mammals, or, as they are commonly 
called, beasts. Of cetacea, or whale-like mammals, 
sixty-five ; ruminatia, or cud-chewers, one hundred and 
seventy-seven ; pachydermata, or thick-skinned mam- 
mals, such as the horse, hog, and elephant, forty-one; 
edentata, like the sloth and ant-eater, thirty-five ; 
rodentia, or gnawers, such as the rat, squirrel, and 
beaver, six hundred and seventeen; carnivora, or 
flesh-eaters, four hundred and forty-six ; cheiroptera, 
or bats, three hundred and twenty-eight; quadru- 
mana, or monkeys, two hundred and twenty-one ; and 
marsupialia, or pouched mammals, like the opossum 
and kangaroo, one hundred and thirty-seven. If we 
leave out the cetacea, that live in the water, and the 
cud-chewers, which are the clean beasts, we have one 
thousand eight hundred and twenty-five species ; and 
male and female of these, a total of three thousand 
six hundred and fifty. 

*But, besides these, there were to be taken into the 
ark fourteen of every kind of clean beast. And what 
are clean beasts ? The scriptural answer is, animals 
that divide the hoof and chew the cud ; and of these at 
least one hundred and seventy-seven species are known. 
Fourteen of each of these added, make a total of six 
thousand one hundred and twenty-eight mammals, 
from the mouse to the elephant. These beasts could not 
be piled one upon another like cord-wood ; they could 



82 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

not be promiscuously crowded together. The sheep 
would need careful protection from the lions, tigers, 
and wolves ; the elephant and other ponderous beasts 
would require stalls of great thickness ; much room 
would be required to enable them to obtain needful 
exercise, and for the attendants to supply them with 
food and water ; and a vessel of the size of the ark 
would be taxed to provide for these beasts alone ; 
and to crowd in, and preserve alive, beasts and birds, 
was an absolute impossibility. 

But there are of reptiles six hundred and fifty-seven 
species; and Noah was to take into the ark two of 
every sort of creeping thing. Two hundred of these 
reptiles are, however, aquatic: hence water would not 
seriously affect them ; but crocodiles, lizards, iguanas, 
tree-frogs, horned frogs, thunder-snakes, chicken- 
snakes, brittlesnakes, rattlesnakes, copperheads, asps, 
cobra de capellos, whose bite is certain death, and 
a host of others, must be provided for. It would 
not do to allow these disagreeable individuals to 
crawl about the ark ; and nine hundred and fourteen 
of them would require considerable space, whether 
they could obtain it or not. 

By this time, the ark is doubly crowded ; but its 
living cargo is not yet completed. A dense cloud 'of 
insects, and a vast army destitute of wings, make their 
appearance, and clamor for admission. The number 
of articulates that must have been provided for is 
estimated at seven hundred and fifty thousand spe- 
cies, — from the butterflies of Brazil, fourteen inches 
from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other, to 
the almost invisible gnat, that dances in the summer's 
beam. Ants, beetles, flies, bugs, fleas, mosquitoes, 



OF MODERN SCIENCE. 83 

wasps, bees, moths, butterflies, spiders, scorpions, 
grasshoppers, locusts, mjriapods, canker-worms, wrig- 
gling, crawling, creeping, flying, male and female^ 
here they come, and all must be provided for. 

Nor are these the last. The air-breathing land- 
snails, of which we know four thousand six hundred 
species, could never have survived a twelve months^ 
soaking ; and they must therefore be cared for. The 
nine thousand two hundred of these add no little to 
the discomfort of the trebly-crowded ark. 

Now let the flood come : all are lodged in the ark 
of safety, and are ready for a year's voyage. But we 
forget ; the ark has not yet received one-half of its 
cargo. The command given unto Noah was, ^' Take 
thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou 
shalt gather it to thee ; and it shall be for food for 
thee and for them ; " and we are expressly told that 
" according to all that God commanded Noah, so 
did he." 

Food for how long ? The flood began in the " sixth 
hundreth year of Noah's life, in the second month, 
the seventeenth day of the month." Noah, his family, 
and the animals, went in seven days before this time, 
and left the ark the six hundred and first year of 
Noah's life, the second month, and the twenty-sev- 
enth day of the month. They were therefore in the 
ark for one year and seventeen days. 

What a quantity of hay would be required, the 
material most easily obtained ! An elephant eats four 
hundred pounds of hay in twenty-four hours. Since 
there are two species of elephants, the African and 
the Indian, there must have been four elephants in 
the ark ; and, supposing them to live upon hay, they 



84 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

would require three hundred tons. There are at 
least seven species of the rhinoceros ; and fourteen 
of these, at seventy-five tons each, would consume no 
less than one thousand and fifty tons. The two thou- 
sand four hundred and seventy-eight clean beasts, — 
oxen, elk, giraffes, camels, deer, antelope, sheep, 
goats, with the horses, zebras, asses, hippopotami, 
rodents, and marsupials — could not have required less 
than four thousand five hundred tons ; making a total 
of five thousand eight hundred and fifty tons. A 
ton of hay occupies about eighteen cubic yards ; and 
the quantity of hay required would fill a hundred 
and five thousand three hundred cubic yards of space, 
or more than the entire capacity of the ark. 

If these animals were fed on other substances than 
hay, the extra difficulty of obtaining and preserving 
those substances would counterbalance any advan- 
tage that might be gained by the economy of space. 

A vast quantity of grain would be necessary for 
thousands of birds, rodents, marsupials, and other 
animals ; and large granaries would be required for its 
storage. 

What flesh would be needed for the lions, tigers, 
leopards, ounces, wild-cats, wolves, bears, hyenas, 
jackalls, dogs, and foxes, martens, weasels, eagles, 
condors, vultures, buzzards, falcons, hawks, kites, 
owls, as well as crocodiles and serpents ! Not one 
but would eat its weight in a month, and some much 
more. A full-grown lion eats fifteen pounds of flesh 
in a day : there are two species of lions ; and the four 
would eat twenty-two thousand pounds in a year. 
There would be, at least, three thousand animals 



OF MODERN SCIENCE. 85 

feeding upon flesh ; and, if we calculate that they 
averaged two pounds of flesh a day, this would 
give a total of more than two million and a quarter 
pounds of flesh to be stored up and distributed. 
And since dried, salted, or smoked meat would not 
answer, this flesh must have been taken into the ark 
alive. It would be equal to more than thirty thou- 
sand sheep at seventy-five pounds each ; a great ad- 
dition to the original cargo, and necessitating an 
extra quantity of hay for their food, till their turn 
came to be eaten. 

Fish would be required for the otters, minks, peli- 
cans, of which there are eight species, and must 
therefore have been fifty-six individuals in the ark ; 
one hundred and five gulls, for there are fifteen 
species ; one hundred and twelve cormorants, forty- 
nine gannets, one hundred and forty terns, two hun- 
dred and eighty-seven kingfishers, beside storks, 
herons, spoonbills, penguins, albatrosses, and a host 
of others ; mollusks for the oyster-catcher, turnstone, 
and other birds. 

The fish could not be preserved after death in any 
way to answer for food, and must therefore have 
been alive : large tanks for the purpose of keeping 
them would take up considerable of the ark's space. 
The water in such tanks would soon become unfitted 
for the respiration of the fish, and there must have 
been some provision, by air-pumps or otherwise, for 
charging the water with the air essential to their 
existence. 

Many animals live upon insects; and this must 
have been the most difficult part of the provision to 
procure. There are nineteen species of goatsuckers ; 



86 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

and there must have been in the ark two hundred 
and sixty-six individuals. These birds feed upon 
flies, moths, beetles, and other insects. What an in- 
numerable multitude must have been provided for the 
goatsuckers alone ! But there are a hundred and 
thirty-seven species of fly-catchers ; and Noah must 
have had a fly-catcher family of nineteen hundred and 
eighteen individuals to supply with appropriate food. 
There are thirty-seven species of bee-eaters ; and 
there must have been five hundred and eighteen of 
these birds to supply with bees. A very large 
apiary would be required to supply their needs. But, 
beside these, insects for swallows, swifts, martins, 
shrikes, thrushes, orioles, sparrows, the beautiful 
trogans and jacamars, moles, shrews, hedgehogs, and 
a multitude of others, too numerous to mention, but 
not too numerous to eat. Ants, also, for the ant-eaters 
of America, the aafd-vark of Africa, and the pango- 
lin of Asia. The great ant-eater of South America 
is an animal sometimes measuring eight feet in 
length. It lives exclusively on ants, which it pro- 
cures by tearing open their hills with its hooked 
claws, and then drawing its long tongue, which is 
covered with glutinous saliva, over the swarms 
which rush out to defend their dwelling. Many 
bushels of ants would be needed for the pair of ant- 
eaters before the ark landed on Ararat. How were 
all the insects caught, and kept for the use of all these 
animals for more than a year ? A hundred men could 
not catch a sufiScient number in six months. And, if 
caught, how could they be preserved, together with 
the original stock of insects necessary to supply the 
world after the deluge ? Some insects eat only bark ; 



OF MODERN SCIENCE. 87 

others, resinous secretions, the pith, solid wood, 
leaves, sap in the veins, as the aphide, flowers, pol- 
len, and honey. Wood, bark, resin, and honey might 
have been supplied; but how could green leaves, sap^ 
flowers and pollen, be furnished to those insects abso- 
lutely requiring them for existence ? Thirty species 
of insects feed on the nettle, but not one of them 
could live on dried nettles. Rosel calculates that 
two hundred species subsist on the oak ; but the oak 
must be in a growing condition to supply them with 
food. In no other way, then, could the insects have 
been preserved alive than by large green-houses, the 
heat so applied as to suit the plants of both temper- 
ate and tropical climates, and the insects so dis- 
tributed among them, that each could obtain its 
appropriate nourishment. 

Fruit would be necessary for the four hundred and 
forty-two monkeys, for the plantain-eaters, the fruit- 
pigeons of the Spice Islands that feed on nutmegs, 
for the toucans and the flocks of parrots, parroqoets, 
cockatoos, and other fruit-eating birds. As they did 
not know how to can fruit in those days, and dried 
fruit would be altogether unsuitable, there must have 
been a large green-house for raising all manner of 
fruit necessary for the frugivorous multitude. 

How were the various animals obtained ? The com- 
mand given to Noah was, " Two of every sort shalt 
thou bring into the ark." 

Animals, as is now well known, belong to limited 
centres, outside of which they are never found in a 
natural state ; and naturalists know that these cen- 
tres were established ages before the time when the 
deluge is supposed to have occurred. 



88 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

Thus, Hugh Miller, in his " Testimony of the Rocks," 
says, " We now know that every great continent has 
its own peculiar fauna; that the original centres of 
distribution must have been, not one, but many ; 
further, that the areas or circles around these centres 
must have been occupied by their pristine animals in 
ages loDg anterior to that of the Noachian Deluge ; 
nay, that in even the latter geologic ages they were 
preceded in them by animals of the same general 
type. There are fourteen such areas, or provinces, 
enumerated by the later naturalists ; " and Cuvier, 
quoted by Miller, says, " The great continents contain 
species peculiar to each ; insomuch, that whenever 
large countries, of this description, have been discov- 
ered, which their situation had kept isolated from the 
rest of the world, the class of quadrupeds which they 
contained has been found extremely different from 
any that had existed elsewhere. Thus, when the Span- 
iards first penetrated into South America, they did 
not find a single species of quadruped the same as 
any of Europe, Asia, or Africa." 

The white bear is never found except in the arctic 
regions ; the great grizzly bear is only found in the 
neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains. Nearly all 
the species of mammals found in Australia are con- 
fined to that country, as the wingless birda of New 
Zealand are confined to that, and the sloth, armadillo, 
and other animals, to South America. 

A journey to the polar regions would be necessary 
to obtain the white bear, the musk-ox, of which seven 
would be required, since it is a clean beast ; seven 
reindeer, likewise ; the white fox, the polar hare, the 
lemming, and seven of each species of cormorant, 



OP MODERN SCIENCE. 89 

gannet, penguin, petrel, and gull, some of which are 
as large as eagles, as well as mergansers, geese, and 
ducks, certain species of which are only found in the 
frigid zone. Noah or his agents must have discov- 
ered Greenland and North America thousands of 
years before Columbus was born: they must have 
preceded Behring, Parry, Ross, Kane, and Hayes in 
exploring the Arctic regions. They searched the ice- 
floes and numerous islands of the Arctic seas, snow- 
shoed, over the frozen tundras of Siberia, to be cer- 
tain that no living thing escaped them ; then, after 
catching and caging all the animals, conveyed them, 
with all manner of food necessary for their sustenance, 
together with ice to temper the heat of the climate 
to which they were for more than a year to be ex- 
posed, returned to the nearest port, and, after a toil- 
some journey from the sea-coast to Armenia, arrived 
at their destination. How many of these animals 
would survive the journey? and, of those that did, 
how many would survive the change of climate and 
habits ? 

Another party must have visited temperate Amer- 
ica ; traversed New England in its length and breadth, 
forded wide streams, made their way through un- 
broken wildernesses, traversed the G-reat Lakes, 
roamed over the Rocky Mountains, and secured the 
black bear, cinnamon bear, wapiti or Canadian stag, 
the moose, American deer, antelope, mountain sheep, 
buffalo, opossum, rattlesnake, copperhead, and an 
innumerable multitude of other animals — insects 
birds, reptiles, and mammals, that are only to be found 
in the temperate regions of America. 

A voyage to South America must have been made 



90 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

to obtain tapirs, pumas, peccaries, sloths, ant-eaters, 
armadilloes, fourteen eacliof the llama, alpaca, and vi- 
cuna, beside monkeys, birds, and insects innumerable. 
A vessel nearly as large as " The Great Eastern " 
must have been employed, or a number of smaller 
ones, to accommodate the collectors, the animals, and 
food for a voyage across the Atlantic. There must 
have been, at least, a thousand men, wandering 
through the woods of Brazil, along the valley of the 
Amazon, the Orinoco, and the La Plata ; paddling up 
the streams, scaling the mountains, roaming over the 
pampas, climbing the tall trees, turning over every 
stone and log, and exploring every nook, to discover 
the snails, bugs, insects, worms, reptiles, and other 
animals indigenous to South America, from the Isth- 
mus to Terra-del-fuego. 

There must have been obtained four elephants, for 
there are two species, the Asiatic and the Indian ; 
fourteen rhinoceroses, one of which is found only in 
South Africa, another in the island of Java, and a 
third in Sumatra ; two hippopotami, and possibly four, 
for some authorities say there are two species. Four- 
teen giraffes, since they are clean beasts, must have 
been caught and driven from Central Africa (many 
more, indeed, must have been caught, that the re- 
quired number might reach the ark and be preserved) ; 
twenty-eight camels, two hundred and eighty oxen (for 
there are twenty species, and they are clean) ; and no 
less than thirteen hundred and eighty-six deer and an- 
telope, of which there are ninety-nine species recog- 
nized : these to be collected in various parts of Europe, 
Asia, Northern and Southern Africa, and America. 

New Zealand must have been visited to obtain its 



OF MODERN SCIENCE. 91 

wingless birds; Mauritius for its dodo, then living; 
Australia for its marsupials and other peculiar ani- 
mals ; and every large island, and most of the small 
ones, to obtain those forms of life that are only to be 
found in each. From the island of Celebes, they must 
have taken the eighty species of birds that are confined 
to it, which would require them to catch, cage, feed, 
and convey eleven hundred and twenty specimens : 
a no small job of itself. Ten men tliat could accom- 
plish that, and carry them safe to Armenia, would do 
all that men could do in ten years. From the Philip- 
pine Islands, the seventy-three species of hawks, par- 
rots, and pigeons, peculiar to them ; which would re- 
quire, since fourteen of every kind of bird were to be 
taken into the ark, no less than one thousand and 
twenty-two specimens. From New Guinea, and the 
neighboring islands, two hundred and fifty-two of the 
magnificent birds of paradise, since there are eighteen 
species. 

A faint idea of the difficulties encountered and 
overcome by Noah's agents may be gathered from 
what Wallace, in his recent work on the Malay Archi- 
pelago, informs us respecting these birds of paradise. 
" Five voyages to different parts of the district they 
inhabit, each occupying in its preparation and execu- 
tion the larger part of a year, produced me only five 
species out of the fourteen known to exist in the New- 
Guinea district." If it took Wallace, with all the as- 
sistance that he had from various officials, five years to 
obtain five species, represented by dead birds, how long 
did it take Noah's agents to obtain eighteen species 
represented by two hundred and fifty-two live birds ? 
Wallace could only obtain two alive, and for these he 
had to pay five hundred dollars. 



92 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

If the antediluvian sinners were any thing like the 
modern ones, Noah must have been richer than the 
Rothschilds, or he never could have obtained their 
services ; which he must have done, or it could never 
be truthfully said, " according to all that God com- 
manded him, so did he." 

The collection of the land-snails alone would be no 
small tax. Seventy-four are peculiar to Great 
Britain : hence there must have been a hundred and 
forty-eight snails collected from that island. Six 
hundred species are found in Southern Europe alone, 
and twelve hundred must have been collected from 
there ; eighty in Sicily, ten in Corsica, two hundred 
and sixty-four in the Madeira Islands, a hundred and 
twenty in the Canary Islands, twenty-six in St. 
Helena, sixty-three in Southern Africa, eighty-eight 
m Madagascar, a hundred and twelve in Ceylon, a 
hundred in New Zealand, and others on every large 
and some of the small islands of the globe. The 
world must have been circumnavigated many times 
before the vessel of Magellan was built, and every 
island visited and ransacked ages before the time of 
Captain Cook. But it seems surprising, since these 
voyages must have been performed by the sinful an- 
tediluvians, that they did not save themselves in their 
ships when the flood came ; for vessels that could 
perform such voyages would certainly have survived 
the flood more readily than the clumsy ark. 

But was it really done ? A thousand men in ten 
years, with all the appliances of modern art, — steam- 
boats, railroads, canals, coaches, and express com* 
panies, — could not accomplish it in ten years ; nor ten 
times the number of men keep all the animals alive in 



OP MODERN SCIENCE. 93 

one spot for one year, if they were collected to- . 
gether. 

'' But," says the Christian, " Noah never did col- 
lect them : no intelligent person in this day ever sup- 
poses that he did." What then ? " The Bible ex- 
pressly declares that ^ they went in unto Noah into 
the ark.' By instinct, such as leads the swallow to 
take its distant flight at the approach of winter, they 
came from all parts of the globe to the ark of 
safety." 

It is true that one account does say that they came 
in unto Noah, for there are two very different stories 
of the deluge mixed up in those chapters of Genesis ; 
but, although flying birds might perform such a feat 
as going twelve thousand miles to the ark, which 
would be necessary for some, how could other ani- 
mals get there ? It would be impossible even for 
some birds. How could the ostriches of Africa, the 
emus of Australia, and the rheas of South America, 
get there, — birds that never fly? There are three 
species of the rhea, or South-American ostrich ; and 
forty-two of these would have a journey of eight 
thousand miles before them, by the shortest route : 
but how could they cross the Atlantic ? If they . 
went by land, they must have traversed the length of 
the American continent, from Patagonia to Alaska, 
crossed at Behring's Strait when it was frozen, and 
then travelled diagonally across nearly the whole 
continent of Asia to Armenia, after a journey that 
must have required many months for its completion. 
The sloths, that have been confined to South Amer- 
ica ever since the pliocene period at least, must have 
taken the same^ route. How they crossed the moun- 



94 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

tain streams, and lived when passing over broad 
prairies, it would be difficult to say. A mile a day 
would be a rapid rate for these slow travellers, and it 
would therefore require about forty years for them 
to arrive at their destination. But, since the life of a 
sloth is not as long as this, they must have be- 
queathed their journey to their posterity, and they 
to their descendants, born on the way, who must 
have reached the ark before the door was closed. 
The land-snails must have met with still greater 
difficulties. Impelled by most wonderful instinct, 
they commenced their journey full a thousand years 
before the time ; and their posterity of the five hun- 
dredth generation must have made their appearance, 
and been provided with a passage by the venerable 
Noah. 

Scott, who wrote a commentary on the Bible sev- 
enty or eighty years ago, must have seen some of 
these difficulties, though with nothing like the clear- 
ness with which science enables us to see them now. 
He says, '' There must have been a very extraordi- 
nary miracle wrought, perhaps by the ministration 
of angels, in bringing two of every species to Noah, 
and rendering them submissive to him and peaceable 
with each other ; yet it seems not to have made any 
impression on the hardened spectators." 

Think of a troop of angels fly-catching, snail-seek- 
ing, and bug-hunting through all lands> lugging 
through the air, horses, giraffes, elephants, and rhi- 
noceroses, and dropping them at the door of the ark. 
One has crossed the Atlantic with rattlesnakes, cop- 
perheads, and boas twined around him, almost crip- 
pling his wings with their snaky folds ; and another 



OF MODERN SCIENCE. 95 

with a brace of skunks, one under each wing, that 
the renewed world may not lack the fragrance of the 
old. What a subject for the pencil of a Raphael or 
Dore ! Had the '^ hardened spectators " beheld such a 
scene as this, Noah and his cargo would have been 
cast out of the ark, and the sinners themselves, con- 
verted by this stupendous miracle, would have taken 
passage therein. 

Not only must there have been a succession of most 
stupendous miracles to get the animals to the ark, but 
also to return them to their proper places of abode. 
But few of them could have lived in the neighbor- 
hood of Ararat, had they been left there. How could 
the polar bear return to his home among the ice- 
bergs, the sloths to the congenial forests of the New 
World, and all the mammals, reptiles, insects, and 
snails to their respective habitats, the homes of their 
ancestors for ages innumerable ? To return them 
was just as necessary as to obtain them, and, though 
less difficult, was equally impossible. 

How could eight persons j all that were saved in the 
ark, attend to all these animals I Nearly all would 
require food and water once a day, and many twice. 
In a menagerie, one man takes care of four cages, — 
feeds, cleans, and waters the animals. In the ark, 
each person, women included, must have attended 
each day to ten thousand nine hundred and sixty- 
four birds, seven hundred and sixty-six beasts, one 
hundred and fourteen reptiles, one thousand one hun- 
dred and fifty land-snails, and one hundred and 
eighty-seven thousand five hundred insects. 

Few persons have an idea of the difficulty of keep- 
ing even the common birds of a temperate climate 



96 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

alive in confinement for any length of time. Food 
that is quite suitable in a wild state may be fatal to 
them when they are kept in the house. Linnets feed 
on winter rape-seed in the wild state, but soon die if 
fed upon it in-doors. '' They are to be fed/' says 
Bechstein, ^' on summer rape-seed, moistened in water ; 
and their food must be varied by the addition of 
millet, radish, cabbage, lettuce and plantain-seeds, 
and sometimes a few bruised melon-seeds or barber- 
ries." Nightingales, he says, should be fed on meal, 
worms, and fresh ants' eggs : but, if it is not possible 
to get these, a mixture of hard egg, ox-heart minced, 
and white bread may be given ; but this often kills the 
birds. No such food would do for Noah's nightin- 
gales, then, or where would have been the nightin- 
gale's song? They must have been fed on meal, 
worms, and fresli ant's eggs. How they were ob- 
tained, we have, of course, no knowledge. Bechstein 
says that larks may be fed with '^ a paste made of 
grated carrot, white bread soaked in water, and bar- 
ley or wheat meal, all worked together in a mortar. 
In addition to this paste, larks should be supplied 
with poppy-seed, bruised hemp, crumb of bread, 
and plenty of greens, such as lettuce, endive, cab- 
bage, with a little lean meat or ant-eggs occasionally." 
He says the cage should be furnished with a piece of 
fresh turf, often renewed, and great attention should 
be paid to cleanliness. The care of the birds in the 
ark probably fell to the women. As they had not 
read Bechstein, or any other author on bird-keeping, 
— and thousands of the birds must have been total 
strangers to them, — how did they know what diet to 
supply them with, and where could they get it, sup- 
posing they had time to supply them at all 'i 



OP MODERN SCIENCE. 97 

If the difficulty was great to keep the birds of a 
temperate climate, how much greater mu£\t it have 
been to keep tropical birds in a climate altogether 
unsuited to them ? The two birds of paradise bought 
by Wallace were fed, he says, on rice, bananas, and 
cockroaches : of the last, he obtained several cans 
from a bake-house at Malta, and thus got his paradise 
birds, by good fortune, to England. But how many 
cans of cockroaches would be necessary for two hun- 
dred and fifty-two of such birds, — the number in 
the ark? and where were the bake-houses from 
which the supply might be obtained? 

To keep this vast menagerie clean would have re- 
quired a large corps of efficient workers, especially 
when we remember that there was but one door in 
each story, as some suppose ; or one door to the 
whole ark, as the story seems to teach, and this door 
was closed ; and but one window, and that apparently 
iu the roof. The Augean stable, the cleansing of 
which was one of the labors of Hercules, can but 
faintly indicate what must have been the condition of 
the ark in less than a month, supposing the animals 
to subsist as long. 

Whence came the water that covered the earth to the 
tops of the highest mountains ? '^All the high hills 
that were under the whole heaven were covered. 
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and 
the mountains were covered," says the record. And 
to do this, it rained for forty days and forty nights. 
A fall of an inch of water in a day is considered a 
very heavy rain in Great Britain. The heaviest sin- 
gle rain recorded fell on the Khasia Hills in India, 
and amounted to thirty inches in twenty-four hours. 



98 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

If this deluging rain could have continued for forty 
days and nights, and had it fallen over the entire sur- 
face of the globe, the amount would only have been 
one hundred feet ; which, instead of covering the 
mountains, would not have covered the hills. But, 
of course, such a rain is only possible for a very 
limited time, and on a small portion of the earth's 
surface. 

Sir John Leslie, in '' The Encyclopedia Britannica," 
says, '^ Supposing the vast canopy of air, by some 
sudden change of internal constitution, at once to 
discharge its whole watery store, this precipitate 
would form a sheet of scarcely five inches thick over 
the surface of the globe.'' But if the water that cov- 
ered the earth above the tops of the highest moun- 
tains came by rain, it must have rained seven 
hundred feet a day for forty days! or there must 
have fallen each day, according to Sir John Leslie's 
estimate, more than fourteen hundred times as much 
water on the earth as the atmosphere contained ! 

But the writer says, '^ The fountains of the great 
deep Avere broken up." To the Jews, who supposed, 
with David, that God had founded the earth upon the 
seas, and established it upon the floods, this meant 
something ; but, in the light of geology, we see that 
it only demonstrates the ignorance of the man who 
wrote and the people that believed the story. 

Adam Clarke, commenting on this passage, says, 
'^ It appears that an immense quantity of water occu- 
pied the centre of the antediluvian earth ; and, as this 
burst forth by the order of God, the circumambient 
strata must sink in order to fill up the vacuum occa- 
sioned by the elevated waters." If true, it would not 



OF MODERN SCIENCE, 99 

have assisted in drowning the world one spoonful. 
For if the strata sank anywhere to fill the hollow pre- 
viously occupied by the water, it would only make 
the mountains so much higher in comparison : hence 
it would require just that much extra water to cover 
them. In the light of geology, however, the notion 
is sufficiently absurd. A mile and a half deep, the 
earth's interior is hot enough to convert water into 
steam ; there is, therefore, no chance for Avater to 
exist in its centre, or anyv^here near it. 

It is as great a difficulty to discover loliere the water 
went when the flood was over. We are told that the 
fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven 
were stopped, and the rain was restrained. But this 
could do nothing towards diminishing the water. All 
that it could possibly accomplish would be to prevent 
the rise of the water. But we are also told that " God 
made a wind to pass over the earth." All that the 
wind could do, however, would be to convey to the 
atmosphere the moisture it took up in vapor ; and 
this could not have lowered the water a yard. The 
highest mountain, Kunchinginga, is more than twenty- 
eight thousand feet high; the flood prevailed one 
hundred and fifty days, and abated two hundred and 
twenty-five ; and if this abatement was done by the 
wind, it must have blown an ocean of water from the 
entire surface of the earth, one hundred and tw^enty- 
five deep, every day for eight months ! All the hur- 
ricanes that ever blew, blowing at once, would be the 
gentlest zephyr of a summer's eve, compared with 
such a wind as that ; aod by what possibility could 
such a craft as the ark survive the storm? 

A question, proper to be asked is, How were the 



.100 THE DELUGE IN THE L.GHT 

animals supplied with light 1 and how did the attendants 
see to wait upon them in the first and second stories 
of the ark ? There was but one window, and that 
only twenty-two inches in size, and it appears to have 
been in the third story. It was a day when kerosene 
was unknown, and tallow dips were uninvented. How 
did these animals live in the darkness ? and, above all; 
how did Noah and his family supply their wants? It 
could have been no easy or pleasant thing to wait 
upon hungry lions, tigers, crocodiles, and rattlesnakes 
in the dark, to say nothing of the danger. 

How did they breathe? There was but one twenty- 
two inch window ; the ark was " pitched within and 
without with pitch ; " " The Lord shut him in." Talk 
of the Black Hole of Calcutta : it must have been 
pure as the breath of morning compared with the 
condition of the ark in one day. 

Where did they obtain water for drink? Supposing 
all the additional water needed to drown the world 
was fresh, when mingled with the water of the sea, 
as much as one-tenth of it would be salt water, and 
this would render it utterly unfit for drink. Provis- 
ion must therefore have been made for water ; and a 
space certainly half as large as the ark must have 
been taken up for the water necessary for this im- 
mense multitude. 

The fishy molluscs, crustaceans (such as our crabs and 
lobsters), and all corals, must have died if such a food 
had taJcen place, — the fresh-water fish from the salt 
water at once added to their proper element, and 
the salt-water fish and other marine forms from so 
large an addition of fresh water. For months, there 
could have been no shore : v/hat is now the margin 



OF MODERN SCIENCE. 101 

of the sea was buried miles deep ; and all the fucoidal 
vegetation, upon which myriads of animals subsist, 
must have perished, and the animals with it, if the 
change in the constitution of the water had not killed 
them. Every time a man swallows an oyster, he has 
evidence that the Noachian deluge did not take 
place. 

Tlie plants must have perished also. How many of 
our trees, to say nothing of the grasses and feeble 
plants, could endure a soaking of nearly twelve 
months^ duration ? Some of the very hardiest seeds 
might survive, but the number could not be large. 
The present condition of vegetation upon the globe 
is another evidence, then, that this deluge did not 
take place. 

When the ark landed on Mount Ararat, and the 
animals went forth, how did they subsist ? As they 
went down the mountains, the carnivorous animals 
would have devoured a large portion of the herbiv- 
orous animals saved in the ark. Beside the lions, 
tigers, leopards, ounces, and other carnivorous mam- 
mals, amounting to eight hundred and ninety-two, there 
were in the ark six hundred and sixty-six eagles, for 
there are forty-eight species ; one hundred and forty- 
four buzzards, fourteen hundred and forty-two falcons, 
one hundred and forty hawks, two hundred and thirty- 
eight vultures, and eight hundred and ninety six owls. 
What chance would a few sheep, rabbits and squir- 
rels, rats and mice, doves and chickens, have, among 
this ravenous multitude ? How could the ants escape, 
with ant-eaters, aard-varks and pangolins on the 
watch for them as soon as they made their appear- 
ance ? There were as many dogs as hares, as many 



102 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

cats as mice. How long a lease of life could the 
sheep, hares, and mice, calculate upon? Before the 
herbivorous aniraals had multiplied, so as to furnish 
the carnivorous animals with food, they must all have 
been destroyed, after all the pains taken for their pres- 
ervation. Noah should have given the he^'bivora, at 
least a year's st-art, especially since the vegetation of 
the globe was so deficient. 

But we are told that the species of animals may 
have been much fewer in the days of Noah ; and, 
therefore, much less room would be necessary. A 
single pair of cats, say some, may have produced all 
the animals of the cat kind ; a pair of dogs, all the 
animals that belong to the dog family. Such an ex- 
planation might have been given when zoology was 
little known, and geology had no existence ; but there 
is no place for it now. Animals change, it is true, 
and all species have probably been produced from a 
few originals; but the process by which this is accom- 
plished is so slow in its operation, that we have no 
knowledge of the formation of a new species. We 
know that lions, tigers, and cats of various species, 
existed long before the time of the deluge, and dogs, 
wolves and foxes ; and we find mummied cats, dogs, 
and other animals in Egypt, as old or older than the 
deluge, so little changed from those of the present 
time in the same locality, that we cannot recognize 
any difference between them. 

'^ You seem to forget that all things are possible with 
God : lie could have packed these animals into an arJc 
of one-half the size, brought them altogether in the 
tivinJding of an eye, and returned them as rapidly.'- 

And yon seem to forget that the account in Gene- 



OF MODERN SCIENCE. 103 

sis gives us no hint of any such miracle. Noah was 
to take the animals to him, and to take unto him of all 
food that is eaten; and, as Hugh Miller remarks, 
'^ the expedient of having recourse to supposititious 
miracle in order to get over a diflSculty insurmounta- 
ble on every natural principle, is not of the nature of 
an argument, but simply an evidence of the want of 
it. Argument is at an end when supposititious mira- 
cle is introduced. '^ But, if a miracle was worked, it 
was not one, but. ten thousand of the most stupen- 
dous miracles, and entirely unnecessary ones. This, 
the Rev. Dr. Pye Smith saw, when he said, *' We can- 
not represent to ourselves the idea of all land ani- 
mals being brought into one small spot, from the polar 
regions, the torrid zone, and all the other climates of 
Asia, Africa, Europe, and America, Australia, and the 
thousands of islands, — their preservation and pro- 
vision, and the final disposal of them, — without 
bringing up the idea of miracles more stupendous 
than any that are recorded in Scripture. The 
great decisive miracle of Christianity, — the resur- 
rection of the Lord Jesus, — sinks down before it." 

It is a favorite method with the advocates of special 
revelations to show their agreement with the opera- 
tions of natural law, till a difficulty is met with that 
cannot be answered, when they flee at once to mira- 
cle to save them. But, in this case, miracle itself 
cannot save them. 

Geology furnishes us with evidence that no such 
deluge has taken place. According to Hugh Miller, 
" In various parts of the world, such as Auvergne in 
Central France, and along the flanks of Etna, there are 
cones of long-extinct or long-slumber hig volcanoes, 



104 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

wLich, though of at least triple the antiquity of the 
Noachian deluge, and though composed of the ordi- 
nary incoherent materials, exhibit no marks of de- 
nudation. According to the calculations of Sir Charles 
Lyell, no devastating flood could have passed over 
the forest-zone of Etna during the last twelve thou- 
sand years." 

Archaeology enters her protest equally against it. 
We have abundance of Egyptian mummies, statues, 
inscriptions, paintings, and other representations of 
Egyptian life belonging to a much earlier period than 
the deluge. With only such modifications as time 
slowly introduced, we find the people, their language, 
and their habits, continuing after that time, as they 
had done for centuries before. Lepsius, writing from 
the pyramids of Memphis, in 1843, says, " We are 
still busy with structures, sculptures, and inscrip- 
tions, which are to be classed, by means of the now 
more accurately determined groups of kings, in an 
epoch of highly flourishing civilization, as far back as 
the fourth millennium before Christ." That is one thou- 
sand six hundred and fifty-six years before the time 
of the flood. Lyell says that " Chevalier Bunsen, in 
his elaborate and philosophical work on ancient Egypt, 
has satisfied not a few of the learned, by an appeal to 
monumental inscriptions still extant, that the succes- 
sive dynasties of kings may be traced ba3k without 
a break, to Menes, and that the date of his reign 
would correspond with the year 3,640 B. C. ; " that is 
nearly thirteen hundred years before the time of the 
deluge. Strange that the whole world should have 
been drowned and the Egyptians never knew it ! 

From the '^ Types of Mankind," we learn that the fad 



OF MODERN SCIENCE. 105 

is " asserted by Lepsius^ and familiar to all Egyptolo 
gists, that negro and other races already existed in 
Northern Africa, on the Uppor Nile, 2,300 years 
B.C." 

But this is only forij -eight years after the deluge. 
What kind "of a family had Noah? Was amalgama- 
tion practised by any of Noah's sons? If all the 
human occupants of the ark were Caucasians, how 
did they produce negro races in forty-eight years ? 
The facts again compel us to announce the fabulous 
character of this Genesical story of the deluge. 

" ifo intelligent person now believes that it was a 
total deluge : Buckland, Pye Smithy Miller^ Hitchcock^ 
and all Christian geologists, agree that it was a partial 
deluge, and the account can he so explained.'^ 

How strange that God should dictate an account of 
the deluge that led everybody to a false conclusion 
with regard to it, till science taught them a better. 
But let us read what the account says, and see 
whether it can be explained to signify a partial 
deluge. To save the Bible from its inevitable fate, 
such men as Buckland, Smith, Miller, Hitchcock, and 
other Bible apologists, it is evident from their writ- 
ings, were ready to resort to any scheme, however 
wild. 

I read (Gen. vi. 7), "I will destroy both man and 
beast, and the creeping thing." How could a partial 
deluge accomplish this ? (v. 13) ; " The end of all flesh 
h come before me. I will destroy them with the 
earth." How could all flesh be destroyed with the 
earth by any other than a total deluge ? (v. 17) ; 
" I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to de- 
stroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life, from 



106 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

under heaven ; and every thing that is in the earth 
shall die." Not only is man to be destroyed, but all 
flesh wherein is the breath of life, from under 
heaven, and every thing u the earth is to die. 
Can this be tortured to mean f.v, partial deluge? (vii. 
19); ^' And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon 
the earth ; and all the high hills that were under 
the whole heaven were covered; and all flesh died 
that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of 
cattle, and of beast, and of creeping thing that creep- 
eth upon the earth, and every man. All in whose 
nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the 
dry land, died. And every living substance was de- 
stroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both 
man and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl 
of the heaven ; and they were destroyed from the 
earth, and Noah only remained alive, and they that 
were with him in the ark." Had the man who wrote 
this story been a lawyer, and had he known how 
these would-be-Bible-believers, and at the same time 
geologists, would seek to pervert his meaning, he 
could not have more carefully worded his account. 
It is not possible for any man to express the idea of a 
total flood more definitely than this man has done. 
He does not merely say the hills were covered, but 
'^ air' the hills were covered; and lest you should 
think that he certainly did not mean the most elevated, 
ho is careful to say " all the high " hills were covered ; 
and lest some one should say he only nieant the hills 
in that part of the country, he says expressly " all the 
high hills that were under the whole heaven to ere cov- 
ered.^^ He is even so cautious as to introduce the 
phrase '' tvhole heaven," lest some one in its absence 



OF MODERN SCIENCE. 107 

might still think that the dc-luge was a partial one. 
To make its universality still more evident, he says, 
" All flesh died that moved upon the earth." This 
would have been sufficiently definite for most persons, 
but not so for him ; he particularizes so that none may 
escape, — " both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, 
and of creeping thing that creepeth upon the eartli, 
and every man." To leave no possibility of mistake, 
he adds, " all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, 
of all that was in the dry land, died." Can any thing 
more be needed ? The writer seems to see that some 
theological professor may even yet try to make this 
mean a partial deluge ; and he therefore says, " Every 
living substance was destroyed which was upon the 
face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the 
creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven ; they 
were destroyed from the earth." Is it possible to 
add to the strength of this ? He thinks it is ; and he 
therefore says, " Noah only remained alive, and they 
that were with him in the ark." Could any truthful 
man write this and then mean that less than a hun- 
dredth part of the earth's surface was covered. If 
not a total flood, why save the animals, above all the 
birds? All that Noah and his family need to have 
done would have been to move out of the region till 
the storm was over. If a partial flood, how could the 
ark have rested on the mountains of Ararat ? Ararat 
itself is seventeen thousand feet high, and it rises 
from a plateau that is seven thousand feet above the 
sea-level. A flood that enabled the ark to float on to 
that mountain could not have been far from uni- 



108 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

versa! ; and, when such a flood is account^^d for on 
scientific principles, it will be just as easy to account 
for a total flood. 

" The flood luas only intended to destroy man, and 
tlierefore only covered tliose parts of the earth that 
were occupied hy him.'' The Bible states, however, 
that it was intended to destroy every thing wherein 
was the breath of life ; and your account and the Bible 
account do not at all agree. But, if man was intended 
to be destroj^ed, the flood must have been wide- 
spread. We know that Africa was occupied before 
that time, and had been for thousands of years, by 
various races. We learn, from the recent discoveries 
in the Swiss Lakes, that man was in Switzerland be- 
fore that time ; in France, as Boucher's and Bigollet's 
discoveries prove; in Great Britain, as the caves in 
Devonshire show; in North America, as the fossil 
human skull beneath Table Mountain demonstrates. 
Hence, for the flood to destroy man alone at so recent 
a period, it must have been as wide spread as the 
earth. 

Even according to the Bible account, the garden of 
Eden, where man was first placed, was somewhere 
near the Euphrates ; and in sixteen hundred years 
the race must have rambled over a large part of the 
earth's surface. The highest mountains in the world, 
the Himalayas, are within two thousand miles of the 
Euphrates. That splendid country, India, would 
have been occupied long before the time of the 
deluge ; and, on the flanks of the Himalayas, man 
could have laughed at any flood that natural causes 
could possibly produce. 



OP MODERN SCIENCE. 109 

••How do you account, then, for these traditions of 
a deluge that toe find all over the globe? '' 

Nothing more easy. In all times floods have oc« 
curred; some by heavy and long-continued rains, 
others by the bursting of lake-barriers or the irrup- 
tion of the sea ; and wherever traditions of these 
have been met with, men with the Bible story in their 
minds have at once attributed their origin to the 
Noachian deluge. 

'^But Jesus and the apostles indorse the account of 
the deluged 

Granted ; but does that ti-ansform a fable into a 
fact? They believed the story just as our modern 
theologians believe it ; because they were taught it 
when they were children, and had not learned better. 
Jesus says (Matt. xxv. 37-39), ^' But as the days of Noe 
were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 
For, as in the days that were before the flood they 
were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in 
marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 
and knew not until the flood came and took them all 
away ; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.'' 
If the man had regarded the story as false, he never 
would have referred to it in such a manner. And, in 
this manifestation of credulity on the part of Jesus, 
we can see the very false estimate placed upon him 
by so large a portion of the people of this country. 
Let the truth be spoken, though Jesus and all other 
idols be overthrown. So he would say, if alive, or 
he was not as good and intelligent a man as I think 
he was. 

By this story the Bible stands or falls as a divine 



110 THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT 

book. It falls, as we see, and takes its place with 
all other human fallible productions. For knowledge, 
we go to Nature, our universal mother, who gives her 
Bible to every soul, and preaches her everlasting 
gospel to all people. 



IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 



IS SPIEITUALISl TEUE? 



It is useless to tell us that a doctrine is popular. 
Paganism was once more popular than Presbyterian- 
ivsm ; the world to-day would have been flat as a table, 
if the belief of a majority could have made it so. " But 
our doctrines are old : they have stood for eighteen hun- 
dred years." If such an argument is good for any 
thing, it overturns all Protestantism, and establishes 
Catholicism in its place ; for Protestantism is only a 
protest against Catholicism, which must, therefore, be 
the older. But Buddhism, which was established 
twenty-five hundred years ago, says to Catholicism, 
" Out, you baby of yesterday ! " but, scarcely seats 
itself in the temple, before it is unceremoniously eject- 
ed by hoary Paganism, the son of the ages. 

For a doctrine to commend itself to the thinkers of 
the nineteenth century it must be true. It matters 
not whether one or one million believe it ; whether it 
is declared by the beggar, whose shivering body the 
rags but miserably protect, or comes from heaven with 
a voice of thunder and the answering response of 
archangels. The only significant question that we can 
ask is. Is it true ? If not, God himself cannot save it 
fi'om the perdition that awaits it. 

8 113 



114 IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 

Is Spiritualism true ? What is Spiritualism ? It is 
not a belief in the writings of Andrew Jackson Davis. 
It is not an indorsement of the manifestations that are 
said to occur through the Davenports, or Eddys, Miss 
Ellis, or Mrs. Blair ; nor is it to believe all that is pub- 
lished in " The Banner of Light," or declared by the 
thousands of mediums who speak in the name of the 
departed throughout tlie land. Whatever truth there 
may be in them, I object to making Spiritualism re- 
sponsible for all these things, many of which can only 
bo known to be true by examinations that one may 
have neither time nor ability to make, and that the 
parties concerned are sometimes unable, and sometimes 
unwilling, to permit. 

What is Spiritualism, then? Webster gives the 
following definition of it : " Spiritualism is a belief in 
the frequent communication of intelligence from the 
world of spirits, by means of physical phenomena com- 
mouly manifested through a person of susceptibility, 
called a ' medium.' " A better, because a more accu- 
rate definition is, " Spiritualism is a belief in the com- 
munication of intelligence from the spirits of the de- 
parted, commonly obtained through a person of sus- 
ceptibility, called a ' medium.' " 

The spirit is sometliing that exists when the body 
dies ; but, since we see nothing depart, it is invisible ; 
it communicates, according to our definition, with the 
living ; it has, then, organs by which its communica- 
tions are made : hence Spiritualism is first a belief 
that man possesses a spirit (the unseen man) that is 
not bound by the limitation of the senses, but can see 
without using the bodily eye, hear when no souiid is 
conveyed to the outward ear, and can travel without 



IS SPIEITUALISM TEUE? 115 

the body's organs of locomotion. Does man possess 
such a spirit ? If lie does, we may reasonably expect 
to find some evidence of it in the present condition of 
existence, as we see in the egg before it is hatched the 
undeveloped wings that are eventually to be used in 
flying. If man is to see in the future, when the eye 
has become dust, we may expect to find some indica- 
tion of it while he is still in the body ; and this we do. 

The writers of the famous Atkinson and Martineau 
Letters (Dr. Atkinson and Harriet Martineau) fear- 
lessly announce in them (and I admire their honesty 
and boldness), that they are atheists, and have no faith 
in man's existence after death ; * and yet they present 
us with facts that establish, I think, the existence in 
man of something altogether distinct from the body, 
and that can obtain knowledge without using the ordi- 
nary senses. I quote from them, because testimony 
in reference to this question coming from such a source 
is particularly valuable ; their opinions giving them no 
bias in the direction of belief in such facts, but rather 
the contrary. 

Dr. Atkinson says, '' I had once a very remarkable 
patient, a somnambule, who, with the eyes closed, could 
easily read any writing I gave her. She read it from 
the top of her head, or when placed in her hand, or, in 
fact, from any part of her body ; and it was to be noticed, 
in this case, that, the more tightly you pressed upon her 
eyes, the more clearly she could see." Dr. Atkinson 
adds, " This was a young lady staying with my mother 
and sisters ; and I may say, that no one, however scepti- 



* I am glad to leai-n, since this was written, that Harriet Martineau has 
become convinced of man's future existence. 



116 IS SPIRITtJALISM TEUE? 

cal, doubted clairvoyance after seeing this case. The 
clear evidence and daylight facts were too strong for 
scepticism itself." * 

Instead of seeing with her eyes, then, the more un- 
favorably her eyes were situated for seeing, and the 
more readily she could see. 

So satisfied of clairvoyance had he become, that he 
says, " I have heard men say, ' We are men of facts, 
and do not believe in clairvoyance.'* I have replied, 
' You are not men of facts, or, at least, not of these facts. 
You are like machines which spin out only one kind 
of fabric. You are men of one language and one 
country ; prisoners with a window to the north, and 
declare there is no moon.' " f A class of prisoners of 
which there are not a few in our own country. 

This making the circle of a man's knowledge the 
boundary of the universe has been altogether too com- 
mon ; and even Carlyle and Emerson, men of uncom- 
mon ability in many directions, have shown themselves 
very circumscribed in this respect, sneering at that 
which they have never or very slightly investigated. 

It is no wonder that Dr. Atkinson speaks so confi- 
dently on the subject of clairvoyance ; for he is a clair- 
voyant himself. He says, " One evening, I saw very 
distinctly, when a few steps from my door, two letters 
on my table, and from the same person. ' Now,' I 
thought, ' this will show me that these perceptions are 
crude fancies ; ' for I had received a letter from the 
same person the day before, and it was out of all prob- 
ability that there should be two more letters from the 
same person, by the same post. On entering the room, 

* Atkinson and Martineau Letters, p. 104. f Ibid. p. p. 153. 



IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? ^ 117 

there were the two letters, sure enough, and lying 
precisely as I had seen them ; and I must say it made 
me start, for this I could not suppose to be a coinci- 
dence." * 

What was this which saw the two letters on his table, 
when he was several steps from the door, so that he 
knew how they lay, and whom they were from ? Cer- 
tainly we have no knowledge of the bodily senses pos- 
sessing such power. I think we shall see, in the light 
of accumulated facts, that, in this case, the spirit-eyes 
beheld the letters, — tliese eyes that can see through a 
brick wall as readily as through air, and a hundred 
miles off as distinctly as at twelve inches. 

However unlikely that it should be, some would ac- 
count for this by coincidence : '- He happened to think 
of two letters from that person at that time, and 
it happened to be so ; that is all." Such an explana- 
tion cannot, however, be given in the following cases : 
" Dr. Gregory, professor of chemistry in the Univer- 
sity of Edinburgh, tells us that Major Buckley has pro- 
duced conscious clairvoyance in eighty-nine persons ; 
of whom forty-four have been able to read mottoes 
contained in nut-shells purchased by other parties for 
the experiment. The longest motto thus read con- 
tained ninety-eight words. Many subjects will read 
motto after motto without one mistake. In this way, 
the mottoes contained in four thousand eight hundred 
and sixty nut-shells have been read, some of them, in- 
deed, by persons in the mesmeric sleep, but most of 
them by persons in the conscious state, many of 
whom have never been put to sleep. In boxes, upward 

* Atkinson and Martineau Letters, p. 110. 



118 IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 

of thirty-six thousand words have been read ; in one 
paper, three hundred and seventy-one words. Inchid- 
ing those who have read words contained in boxes 
when in the sleep, one hundred and forty-eight per- 
sons have thus read. In a few cases, the words may 
have been read by thought-reading, as the persons who 
put them in the boxes were present ; but, in most cases, 
no one who knew the words has been present, and they 
must, therefore, have been read by direct clairvoyance. 
The nuts enclosing mottoes, for example, have been 
purchased of forty different confectioners, and have 
been sealed up till read." * 

Dr. Ashburner of London, not trusting to the nut- 
shells furnished by the major, purchased some himself, 
and these were read by the clairvoyants with accuracy, f 
He also says, •' Delicately sensitive persons have, in my - 
presence, read printed words and sentences on slips of 
paper, previously concealed from them carefully in 
another apartment, in the innermost of a nest of four 
silver boxes, all enclosed in a morocco case, or folded 
up in nutshells." 

" All that is done by mind-reading," says one. But, 
where the mottoes were sealed up till read, this ap- 
pears to be impossible ; and, in the following case given 
by Dr. Gregory, it was manifestly impossible, for the 
individual who supposed he knew the word was mis- 
taken, and the clairvoyant right. 

" On one occasion, Sir T. Willshire took home a nest 
of boxes belonging to the major, and placed in the 
inner box a paper on which he had written a word. 
He sealed up the boxes in paper, and asked one of the 

* Gregory's Letters on Animal Magnetism, p. 302. 

t Ashburner's Animal Magnetism and Spiritualism, p. 271 



IS SPIEITUALISM TEUE? 119 

clairvoyants to read it. She said she saw the word 
' concert.' Ho declared that she was wrong, though 
right with regard to the first and last letters. She per- 
sisted that it was ' concert ; ' and, opening the boxes, it 
was found that she was correct, the baronet having 
forgotten the word " * 

Rev. Chauncey H. Townshend tells us of a young 

man, E. A , whom he mesmerized, and took into a 

perfectly dark closet, when, lie says, " I drew a card at 
hazard from a pack with which 1 had provided myself, 
and presented to him. He said it was so and so. Tiie 
admission of light established his correctness : it was 
the card he had named. The experiment repeated 
four times gave the same satisfactory result. He used 
to declare, that, the more complete the darkness was, 
the better he could exercise his new mode of percep- 
tion." t 

Such evidence as this might be considered sufficient 
to establish the fact of clairvoyance ; but extraor- 
dinary evidence is needed to establish extraordinary 
facts. 

In 1825, Dr. Foissac demanded of the Royal Acade- 
my of Medicine in Paris, that a commission should be 
appointed to examine the claims of animal magnetism. 
Nine men of learning, several of whom liad European 
reputations, were appointed, and after five years pub- 
lished their report. In this report they state that 
animal magnetism may produce somnambulic sleep; 
that some sleepers can see with their eyes closed, can 
foretell accurately, even months in advance, the time 
of the access of epileptic fits, or the time of their cure; 

* Gregory's Letters on Animal Magnetism, p. 272. 
t Townsliend's Facts in Animal Magnetism, p. 244. 



120 IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 

and can discover the diseases of persons with whom 
they are placed in magnetic connection.* 

Baron Reichenbach, the well-known chemist, and 
author of the "Dynamics of Magnetism," says that 
high sensitives in the somnambulic condition, when 
they have their eyes closed, perceive the forms and 
colors of the external world, and in the same manner 
they can look into the human body. 

Dr. Colby of Stanstead, Canada, informed me that 
he had a patient who was so good a clairvoyant, that 
she read for him a paper just taken from the press, 
with lior eyes bandaged, and a tea-tray between her 
eyes and the paper. 

Tliere are but few who have investigated mesmeric 
or psychometric phenomena, who have not had oppor- 
tunities of seeing clairvoyant phenomena. " Vision," 
says M. Teste, " through the closed eyelids, and through 
opaque bodies, is not only a real fact, but a Yery fre- 
quent fact. There is no magnetizer who has not ob- 
served it twenty times ; and I know at the present 
day, in Paris alone, a very great number of somnam- 
bulists who might furnish proofs of it." f I have had 
very frequent opportunities of observing the exercise 
of this power, both in mesmeric and psychometric 
subjects. 

It is evident that the eye is not necessary to enable 
some persons to see ; and the reason appears to be, 
that the indwelling spirit, although ordinarily depend- 
ent upon the senses for its knowledge of the exterior 
world, is not confined to them. It can see by other por- 
tions of the body as well as by the eyes, hear by the 

* New American Cyclopaedia, art. "Animal Magnetism." 
t Quoted by Bush in Mesmer and Svvedenborg, p. 107. 



IS SPIKITUALISM TEUE? 121 

fingers as well as by the ears, and can both see and 
hear when it appears impossible that any portion of 
tlie body can be influenced by what is seen and heard. 

Dr. Mayo, professor of comparative anatomy in the 
Royal College of Surgeons, London, relates several 
instances of such phenomena. He says, " The psychi- 
cal phenomena exhibited by the patient when thus en- 
tranced are the following : The organs of sensation 
are deserted by their natural sensibility. The patient 
neither feels with the skin, nor sees with the eyes, nor 
hears with the ears, nor tastes witli the mouth. All 
these senses, however, are not lost. Sight and hear- 
ing, if not smell and taste, re-appear in some other 
part, — at the pit of tlie stomach, for instance, or the 
tips of the fingers. 

" The patient manifests new perceptive powers. She 
discerns objects all around her, and through any ob- 
structions, partitions, walls, or houses, and at an in- 
definite distance. She sees her own inside, as it were, 
illuminated, and can tell what is wrong in the health 
of others." * 

Dr. Gregory says, " The clairvoyant power has been 
observed to be located in the pit of the stomach, in the 
tips of the fingers, in the occiput as well as in the 
forehead, or on the top of the head. ... In one form 
or other, the power of dispensing with the eyes, and 
yet perceiving color, &c., quite plainly, is found in every 
good subject. 

" The same thing frequently happens in hearing. 
Thus E., when on her travelling state or stage, is utter- 
ly deaf to all sounds save those which are addressed 

* Popular Superstitions, p. 121. 



122 IS SPIEITUALISM TEUE? 

to her by speaking with the mouth in contact with the 
tips of her fingers. This fact I have myself verified." * 

Dr. Mayo relates the following on the authority of 
Baron de Fortis. The patient had epilepsy, for the 
cure of which she went to Aix. '' There she had all 
sorts of fits and day-somnambulism, during which 
she waited at table, with her eyes shut perfectly. She 
likewise saw alternately with her fingers, the palm of 
her hand, and her elbow, and would write with pre- 
cision with the right hand, superintending the process 
with her left elbow." In explanation of such phe- 
nomena. Dr. Mayo says, " The possibility of an abnor- 
mal relation of the mind and body, allowing the for- 
mer either to shift the place of its manifestations in the 
nervous system, or partially to energize as free spirit, 
is the only principle which at present offers any solu- 
tion of the new powers displayed in catalepsy." f 
And I think this explanation is the true one. 

" But is it not possible that the brain has the power 
of receiving sensations by other than the ordinary 
channels, and that it is the brain, after all, by which 
this is accomplished, and not a spirit behind or within 
the man ? " 

It is well that this question should be asked, and the 
reasons given for regarding the spirit as the agent, and 
not the brain. " During sleep," says Dr. Hammond, 
" the brain is in a comparatively bloodless condition, 
and the blood in the encephalic vessels is not only 
diminished in quantity, but moves with diminished 
rapidity." J If the brain is the agent concerned in 

* Gregory's Letters on Animal Magnetism, p. 148. 

t Popular Superstitions, p. 130. 

} Sleep and its Derangements, p. 35. 



IS SPIEITUALISM TEUE? 123 

clairvoyant and clairaudient phenomena, its power be- 
ing very much reduced by sleep, we should naturally 
expect that sleep would decrease or destroy its ability 
in this direction : but the very opposite seems to be 
the case ; for many who possess no clairvoyant power 
in the waking condition have, in sleep, a remarkable 
development of it. 

William Howitt relates the following case, which is 
also given by Mayo. In December, 1848, Mr. Smith, 
gardener to Sir Clifford Constable, disappeared ; but 
his hat and stick were found near the River Tees. 
The river was dragged daily, but to no purpose. One 
night, a person named Awde, living at Little Newsham, 
dreamed that Smith was laid under the ledge of a cer- 
tain rock about three hundred yards below Whorlton 
Bridge, and that his right arm was broken. He got up 
early the next morning, and determined to search the 
river. On arriving at the boat-house, he told the boat- 
man his object, on being asked for what purpose he 
wished the boat. He rowed to the spot he had seen 
in his dream, and pulled up the body of the man witli 
the boat-hook, on the first trial, with his right arm ac- 
tually broken.* There is no intimation given, that 
Mr. Awde possessed any clairvoyant power in his wak- 
ing state. 

Similar instances might be given, for they are by no 
means rare (some I shall give in another connection), 
that seem to prove that the brain, which, as is now 
well known, is contracted in sleep, and therefore less 
fitted for obtaining ideas, cannot be the agent in clair- 
voyance, but it must be tlie all-seeing spirit. 

* Ennemoser's History of Magic, p. 417. 



124 IS SPIEITUALISM TRUE? 

Mesmerism induces, generally, a state of still deeper 
sleep than the ordinary, and therefore less fitted for 
the action of the brain ; and'yet in just that proportion 
does it seem to be favorable for the exercise of clair- 
voyance and its accompanying phenomena ; and when 
the deepest sleep is secured by magnetism, and the 
eye is no longer sensitive to light, the ear to sound, 
and the skin to touch, it is then that these peculiar 
powers are most frequently and clearly manifested, as 
nearly all writers on mesmerism testify. 

When approaching death enfeebles all the body's 
powers, then the permeating spirit asserts its true na- 
ture, most strong when the body is most weak. 

The Rev. Hare Townshend gives us an instance of 
this. Chevalier Filippi of Milan informed him of a 
patient of his who had an abscess, and whom, on visiting, 
he found had but a few hours to live. Leaving the 
sick-chambe<i% he shut the door, and passed through 
two other rooms, the doors of wliich he also carefully 
shut, and entered an apartment where some friends of 
the patient were assembled. To these he said, speak- 
ing in a low tone, " The Signor Yaldrighi is much 
worse. He cannot possibly survive till morning." 
Scarcely had he uttered the words, when the patient's 
bell was heard to ring violently, and soon after a 
servant summoned the doctor back again. " Why did 
ydu deceive me ? " exclaimed the dying man : " I heard 
every word you said just now in the farther apart- 
ment." He then repeated to the astonished physician 
the very words he had made use of.* How, otherwise, 
can such facts be explained, than as evidences of man's 

* Townshend's P^acts in Animal Magnetism, p. 321. 



IS SPIEITUALISM TEUE? 125 

possession of a spirit whose powers are altogether su- 
perior to those of the body ? 

Tlie fact that one person can read the thoughts of 
another, no word being spoken, and no communication 
given, most persons conversant with mesmerism are 
familiar with. I have sometimes heard people say, 
when attempting to explain remarkable mesmeric or 
spiritual phenomena, '^ Oh, well ! that is thought-read- 
ing." But what, pray, is thought-reading? Can we 
imagine any thing more remarkable ? In ordinary 
clairvoyance, objects that the eye might behold are 
seen ; but in thought-reading that is done which no 
bodily sense can accomplish, unless it is some sense of 
which as yet we know nothing. 

Dr. Mayo says, " Presently, if his trance-faculties 
continue to be developed, the entranced person enters 
into communication with the entire mind of the mes- 
merizer. His apprehension seems to penetrate the 
brain of the latter, and is capable of reading all his 
thoughts." * 

Dr. Gregory says, "The sleeper, being placed en rap- 
fort with any person, can often describe with the great- 
est accuracy the subject that occupies the thoughts of 
that person. It may be an absent friend, or his own 
house, or that of another, or his drawing-room, bed- 
room, study, &c., — all these things the sleeper per- 
ceives as they pass through the mind of the experi- 
menter, and describes with great minuteness and accu- 
racy. . . . He perceives things once known to, and now 
forgotten by, the experimenter." f 

Townshend relates that a lady, wishing to test a mes- 

* Popular Superstitions, p. 177. 

t Letters on Animal Magnetism, pp. 108, 109. 



126 IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 

meric subject of his, was about to choose two cards 
from a number lying upon the table, and then ask him 
to discover which they were. She had chosen the 
cards by her eye only, in perfect silence, and standing 
behind the subject, when he exclaimed, " Why should 
I go through this farce ? I know already the two 
cards which the lady thought of: they were so and so." 
He was perfectly right. * 

But what is this that reads thoughts ? Certainly 
not the eye, and assuredly no other known sense. Can 
it be the brain, destitute of all organs for that purpose ? 
Can it be other than the spirit, exercising those powers 
which it will constantly employ when released from 
the body ? Within us all these wondrous powers lie as 

" The wiugs that form 
The butterfly lie folded in the worm." 

Were it not, however, for other and more convincing 
evidence of the spirit's existence and operation, we 
might still refer all these cases to the operation of some 
occult power in the body yet to be discovered. But 
the persons through whom such phenomena are mani- 
fested, frequently have the sensation of being distinct 
from the body, of even looking down upon it, of trav- 
elling to distant localities, and returning again to the 
body. All who have experimented much in mesmer- 
ism are familiar with this ; and evidence on this subject 
is quite voluminous. Dr. Mayo says, " These more 
complicated cases prove that the clairvoyant actually 
pays a mental visit to the scene. But she can do 
more : she can pass on to other and remoter scenes 

* Townshend's Facts in Animal Magnetism, p. 447. 



IS SPIillTUALISM TRUE? 127 

and places of which her fellow-traveller has no cog- 
nizance." * 

Thomas C. Hartshorn, a well-known magnetizer, 
writmg many years ago for "The Providence Journal," 
says of a friend whom he had magnetized, " I can send 
him forth instantly through the thick darkness of night 
into distant lands, and cause him to bring us tidings 
of our absent friends. His spirit seems to delight in 
this activity : his intellectual countenance brightens 
up with various emotions. He glides along the sur- 
face of the earth and ocean as rapid as the lambent 
borealis ; and ever and anon, as different scenes arrest 
liis attention, ho bursts out into involuntary exclama- 
tions of pleasure or surprise, of joy or sorrow." This 
is no exaggeration, as my own experience with clair- 
voyants lias repeatedly demonstrated. Before the ad- 
vent of modern Spiritualism, I had, on numerous occa- 
sions, sent mesmeric subjects on distant journeys, and 
obtained from them knowledge of events then transpir- 
ing, as subsequent inquiries proved, — events abso- 
lutely unknown to all others present, and of such a 
character that they could not be guessed. 

Mr. Hartshorn again says, '' That the human spirit 
hath power to leave the body, and take cognizance of 
things distant in space, is but an elementary truth in 
this branch of psychology." 

Dr. Cleaveland of Providence gives the following 
statement, made to him by a carpenter, who fell from 
the staging of a building to the ground. " As I struck 
the ground," said he, '' I suddenly bounded up, seem- 
ing to have a new body, and to be standing among the 

* Popular Superstitions, p. 191. 



J 



128 IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 

spectators, looking at mj old one. I saw them trying 
to bring it to. I made several fruitless efforts to re- 
enter my body, and finally succeeded." 

Mr. Moore of Maiden, an officer in the Cbarlestown 
navy-yard, informed me, that, when fifteen years of age, 
he fell in climbing a lamp-post ; and his head struck 
tlie curb-stone of the street with such violence as to 
fracture his skull. He instantly found himself out of 
his body, and looking down upon it ; but in a few min- 
utes, with a struggle, was able to return to ordinary 
consciousness. 

Sensations similar to these have been frequently ex- 
perienced by intelligent and reliable persons with 
whom I have conversed ; and I know of no way in 
which they can be accounted for save by acknowledg- 
ing that man does possess a spirit having organs of 
sensation. 

John 0. Wattles of Kansas, well known in the West 
as one of the most eloquent and earnest laborers in 
the antislavery cause at a time when to be such was 
to be ostracised, informed me, that, on one occasion, he 
accidentally discovered that his spirit could leave the 
body, and return. He found, afterward, that tliis could 
be done at will ; and he frequently looked down as a 
spectator upon his body lying in a death-like trance, 
and then roamed at pleasure over the earth, and re- 
turned again. 

Psychometers have frequently the power to do this ; 
yet the body, in their case, presents no apparent differ- 
ence from its ordinary condition. Mrs. Cridge, Mrs. 
Denton, and my sou Sherman, travel spiritually with 
great ease, and describe with great accuracy distant 
localities never visited by them, and sometimes un- 



IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? * 129 

known to all persons present. They describe them- 
selves as being there, to all appearance, in the body, so 
that they can see its different parts ; the spiritual body 
being as real to spiritual sight as the physical body is 
to the physical eye, and quite as much so to the touch. 
They can hear, see, feel, taste, smell, and, in short, 
exercise every sense, much more perfectly than if pres- 
ent in the body : and this I have known psychometers 
to express hundreds of times ; several independent 
psychometers, knowing nothing of the experience of 
others, giving exactly similar statements. 

Lydia Maria Child has just published the following 
statement regarding her deceased friend Henrietta 
Sargent. " One morning, she spoke of not feeling as 
well as usual ; but it was regarded by herself and oth- 
ers as merely a slight deviation from lier customary 
good health. But in the course of the day she sud- 
denly fainted away. As the usual restoratives pro- 
duced no effect, the family physician was summoned. 
No better success attended his efforts. The breath 
appeared to be entirely suspended, and the limbs re- 
mained rigid and cold. Her daughters feared she 
must be dead ; and the doctor began to be doubtful 
whether animation would ever be restored. How long 
she continued in this state, I do not remember. But, 
while they were watching her with ever-deepening 
anxiety, she gasped feebly, and, after a while, opened 
her eyes. When she had completely recovered, she 
told her daughters she had been standing by them all 
the time, looking upon her lifeless body, and seeing 
all they did to resuscitate it ; and she astonished them 
by repeating the minutest details of all that had been 
said or done by them and the doctor during her pro- 
longed state of utter insensibility." 



130 IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 

Dr. Kerner relates of the Seeress of Prevorst: "On 
the 28th of May, 1827, at midnight, when I was with 
her, she again saw herself sitting on a stool. . . . She 
tried to cry out, but could neither speak nor move. . . . 
The image ran towards her; and, just as it reached 
her, a sort of electric shock passed over her which I 
saw : she then uttered a scream, and related to me 
what she had seen." In this case, the body appears 
to have seen the spirit ; in all cases with which I have 
been conversant, the spirit has seen the body or seen 
itself. All these facts, however, like converging rays, 
point to the grand luminous truth from which they 
proceed, — the possession by man of a spirit. 

I have noticed that when persons in their ordinary 
condition have no belief in future existence, yet, when 
their spiritual faculties are awakened, they realize its 
truth, and rejoice in the satisfaction that it brings to 
the soul ; and the more highly-developed mesmeric 
subjects frequently manifest this. 

Townshend tells us of a materialistic young French- 
man whom he frequently mesmerized. In his waking 
condition, he had no faith in future existence, and was 
not at all backward in declaring it ; but, " in sleep- 
walking," says Townshend, '' all this was changed. His 
ideas of the mind were correct, and singularly opposed 
to the material views he took of all questions when in 
the waking state. . . . Beautiful are the things he has 
said to me respecting the soul's recognition of those it 
loved on earth, and of the privilege of departed friends 
to watch over the objects of their solicitude while toil- 
ing through the pilgrimage of life." * 

* Townshend's Facts in Animal Magnetism, p. 163. 



IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 131 

These facts are in no other way related to modern 
Spiritualism than as evidencesof the existence in Na- 
ture of that of which the facts of modern Spiritualism 
are more recent and fuller illustrations ; most of them 
belong to a time previous to the first Rochester rap. 

One or two such facts might be considered of little 
importance ; but together they form a body of evidence 
that seems to me absolutely irresistible. And, if thi?i 
is true, the foundation of Spiritualism is true. Man is 
not merely an animated clod, to lie down with his fel- 
low-clods, and know no more than they. We do not 
see all there is of him : he has a wondrous body, but 
a vastly more wondrous spirit, to which no night is 
dark, no body opaque ; no distance can baffle its gaze, 
no bodily sense limit its knowledge. It is the true 
man, and the body but its incasement, — the shell, 
only useful till the spirit is plumed for its flight. 

Then the materialist and the adventist are alike 
wrong. The materialist sees but the surface of things, 
knows nothing of the all-controlling spirit within, 
yet makes his knowledge the boundary of the universe. 
The adventist calls in miracle where it is altogether 
unnecessary. Man is a spirit : he is not to become 
one. Nature knows no favored saints, who are to be 
spiritually created for the barbarous heaven of a half- 
Jewish, half-Christian mythology, while the rest are 
left to sink into nonentity ; but she has given to all 
freely as life, light, and air, that spirit which can smile 
at death, and soar triumphant when the lifeless body 
sinks to the dust. 

Spiritualism also includes the belief that this 
spirit lives when the body dies. Accept the first, and 
there is little difficulty in believing the second. If 



132 IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 

man has a spirit that can see without using the eyes 
of the body ; see even when these eyes do not exist, or 
are incapable of vision, as in the case of blind som- 
nambulists and clairvoyants, — it is not unreasonable to 
suppose that it may see when its connection with the 
body is entirely destroyed by death. If he has a spirit 
that can hear sounds that are made hundreds of miles 
away from the body, and thus independent of the body's 
ears, it is not unreasonable to suppose that it may con- 
tinue to hear when the body and all its organs are 
abandoned by the spirit, and the dust claims its kin- 
dred dust. And why may not the spirit, which has 
demonstrated its independence so clearly of all the 
body's faculties, continue to manifest its powers, though 
the body be no more ? Why should we possess facul- 
ties all but unused, or used by but one in ten thousand ? 
Why these spiritual eyes, if we are never to use them ? 
Why these ears that hear so little, and yet have such 
wonderful capacity ? Why this ability to travel more 
rapidly than light, if death is to destroy it when it 
has so seldom been employed ? There is a physical 
body, and there is a spiritual body ; and, in the light of 
facts, it is most reasonable to believe that the spiritual 
body will live when the physical body dies. 

I can imagine two worms just folded in their cocoon, 
arguing the question whether there is to be any future 
life for them. " I have an idea," says one, " that I 
shall fly when I liave eaten my way out of this case in 
which I am enclosed." — " You fly ! " says the other : 
" that is all nonsense. You are a worm; and your life 
has been spent in crawling on the ground, for which 
alone all your faculties are fitted. Whoever saw worms 
tiy ? Worms we are, and worms we must ever be, and 



IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 133 

are now shut up in what must, in the nature of things, 
be our grave." — " But what are these wings for ? I 
can feel wings that are growing on my sides ; and I am 
persuaded that they are to be used. I sliall fly, and, 
in the summer's sun of another year, flit from flower 
to flower, and enjoy the beauty of the bright world." 
And the hopeful worm is right. And we say, " What 
are these spiritual faculties for ? They are our wings; 
and there is a realm where they are to be exercised 
during a life that only truly commences after what we 
call death." 

As an evidence of this, let us again refer to sleep. 
If the spirit ceases to exist when the body dies, it is but 
reasonable to suppose that it will be influenced by the 
condition of the body in life ; so that, when the body is in 
the most unfavorable condition for receiving knowledge 
through the senses, the spirit will likewise be in an 
equally unfavorable condition for receiving knowledge: 
but if the spirit is to survive death, and exercise its 
powers when it is separated from the body, we may 
reasonably expect that it will be able to manifest these 
powers when the ordinary senses are locked in sleep ; 
and this we find to be the case. Sleep closes the eye 
and prevents vision, contracts the brain, reduces .the 
circulation, and deadens the general sensibility : and yet 
the spirit in this condition can see what the open eye 
could not perceive ; it reveals what it has tortured the 
brain for days in vain to discover ; it visits distant lands, 
and beholds the succession of passing events in which 
the individual is interested, and sometimes even those 
in which he takes no special interest. 

Dr. Carpenter relates, that Condorcet saw in his 
dreams the final steps of a difficult calculation which 



184 IS SPIRITtJALISM TRUE? 

had puzzled him daring the day ; and Condillac states, 
that, when engaged with his " Course of Study," 
he frequently developed and finished a subject in his 
dreams which he had broken off before retiring to rest. 
Can it be the brain that does this in sleep, when it has 
been unable to accomplish it in the waking state ? We 
might as well suppose a man could run eight miles an 
hour with his. feet shackled, while he could only run 
four when they were free. 

Chambers, in an essay on sleep, says, " A distin- 
guished divine of the present day, who in his college- 
days, was devoted to mathematical studies, was once 
baffled for several days by a difficult problem, which 
he finally solved in his sleep." If you say, all this, 
however, the brain might do, stimulated into unusual 
activity by the waking desires, there are numerous 
cases that cannot be so explained. 

In " The Penny Encyclopaedia," article " Dreams," 
I find the following, " In the night of the 11th of May, 
1812, Mr. Williams of Scorrior House, near Redruth 
in Cornwall, awoke his wife, and, exceedingly agitated, 
told her that he had dreamed that he was in the lobby 
of the House of Commons, and saw a man shoot with 
a pistol a gentleman who had just entered the lobby, 
who was said to be the chancellor ; to which Mrs. Wil- 
liams replied, that it was only a dream, and recom- 
mended him to go to sleep as soon as he could. He 
did so ; but, shortly after, he again awoke her, and said 
that he had a second time had the same dream. The 
same vision was repeated a third time ; on which, not- 
withstanding his wife's entreaties that he would lie 
quiet, and endeavor to forget it, he arose (then between 
one and two o'clock) and dressed himself. At break- 



IS SPIEITUALISM TTltTE? 135 

fast, the dreams were the sole subject of conversation ; 
and in the forenoon Mr. Williams went to Falmouth, 
where he related the particulars of them to all of his 
acquaintances that he met. On the following day, Mr. 
Tucker of Trematon Castle, accompanied by his wife, 
(a daughter of Mr. Williams), went to Scorrior House 
on a visit. Mr. Williams related to Mr. Tucker the 
circumstance of his dreams ; on which Mr. Tucker 
observed, that it would do very well for a dream to 
have the chancellor in the lobby of the House of Com- 
mons, but that he would not be found there in reality. 
Mr. Tucker then asked what sort of a man he appeared 
to bo, when Mr. Williams described him minutely. 
Mr. Tucker replied, ' Your description is not at all 
that of the chancellor, but is very exactly that of Mr. 
Perceval, the chancellor of the exchequer.' He then 
inquired whether Mr. Williams had ever seen Mr. Per- 
ceval, and was told that he had never seen him, nor 
had he ever had any thing to do with him ; and, further, 
that he had never been in the House of Commons in 
his life. At this moment they heard a horse gallop to 
the door of the house ; and immediately after a son 
of Mr. Williams entered the room, and said that he had 
galloped out from Truro, having seen a gentleman 
there who had come by that evening's mail from town, 
and who had been in the lobby of the House of Com- 
mons on the evening of the 11th, when a man called 
Bellingham had shot Mr. Perceval (the chancellor of 
the exchequer). After the astonishment which this in- 
telUgence created had a little subsided, Mr. Williams 
described most minutely the appearance and dress of 
the man that he saw in his dream fire the pistol at 
the chancellor, as also of the chancellor. About six 



136 IS SPIRITUALISM THUE? 

weeks after, Mr. Williams, having business in town, 
went, accompanied by a friend, to tlie House of Com- 
mons, where, as has been already observed, he had 
never before been. Immediately that he came to the 
steps at the entrance of the lobby, he said, ' This place 
is as distinctly within my recollection as any room in 
my house ; ' and he made the same observation when he 
entered the lobby. He then pointed out the exact 
spot where Bellingham stood when he fired, and which 
Mr. Perceval had reached when he was struck by the 
ball when he fell. The dress both of Mr. Perceval and 
Bellingham agreed with the description given by Mr. 
Williams, even to the minutest particulars. The dream 
is related by Dr. Abercrombie with some additional 
circumstances." 

Mr. Williams obtained in sleep knowledge, that, even 
in the waking state, he could not have obtained ; and 
sleep, instead of diminishing the spirit's power, vastly 
increased it, showing its independence of the body's 
condition. 

" A respected correspondent of Mr. F.," says Cham- 
bers in his " Essay on Dreams," " was a man of exem- 
plary piety and the strictest veracity. He was in the 
East-India Company's service, and, having served one 
and twenty years, was about to return to his native 
country on leave of absence for three years. Some 
nights before his departure from Calcutta, he had a 
dream that his father died. It was so vivid, and so mi- 
nutely circumstantial, that it made a very deep impres- 
sion on him ; and he entered all the particulars and 
the date into his pocket-book. In about six months 
after, on his arrival in London, he found letters from 
Ireland, where his family resided, waiting for him. 



IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 137 

They announced the death of his father, which had 
occurred on the very night of his dream. This was so 
singular, that, when he joined his sister a few days 
after, he desired her to enter into no particulars rela- 
tive to his father's death till she should hear him. 
' Sarah,' said he, ' I believe that my father did not die 
in his own room: his bed was in the parlor.' — 'It 
was, it was, indeed,' replied she : ' he had it brought 
down a short time after he was taken ill, to save him 
the fatigue of going up and down stairs.' — ' I will 
show you the spot where it was placed,' said Capt. F. 
He immediately pointed out the situation of the bed, 
exactly where it had been. He showed where the 
coffin had been laid. There was nothing connected with 
the melancholy event which he could not detail as mi- 
nutely as those who had actually been present. Strange 
as all this may appear, it is nevertheless perfectly true. 
I have frequently heard it from Capt. F. himself, and 
from his wife and sister." 

The Pacific Hotel in St. Louis was destroyed by fire 
in February, 1858, and twenty-one lives were lost. On 
the night of the fire, a little brother of Mr. Henry 
Rochester, living at home with his parents, near Avon, 
N.Y., awoke some time after midnight with screaming 
and tears, saying that the hotel in St. Louis was on 
fire, and that his brother Henry was burning to death. 
At noon on the following day, his parents received a tel- 
egram from St. Louis confirming his dream in every 
particular.* 

There is no evidence that these individuals possessed 
any clairvoyant power in their waking state ; but, as 
the bodily eye closes, the spiritual eye opens, and when 

* Planchette ; or, The Despair of Science, p. 168. 



138 IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 

the brain and senses are in an eminently unfavorable 
condition for obtaining knowledge, then knowledge of 
even distant events is easily and readily obtained by 
the spirit. 

In death-trance, when even the circulation is stopped, 
and respiration can no longer be perceived, when the 
pallor of death overspreads the countenance, and death 
itself is so well counterfeited that it is hardly possible 
to distinguish the one from the other, the spirit asserts 
its superiority and independence ; it hears, sees, feels, 
and obtains knowledge, that, out of this trance-state, 
the individual is unable to obtain. 

In " The American Phrenological Journal," I find 
the following. " A daughter of Mr. Hangiey of Bangor, 
seven years of age, was taken sick of cholera, and, to 
all appearance, died, but in a few hours stretched forth 
her arms, and exclaimed, ' father ! I have been to 
heaven, and it is a beautiful place.' She stated that 
she saw her mother there, who had died but a few days 
before, and she was taking care of little children, 
among whom, she said, were ' four children of Uncle 
Hangiey, and three children of Uncle Casey.' — ' But,' 
said an older sister, ' it cannot be so ; for there are but 
two of Uncle Casey's children dead.' — ' Yes,' she re- 
plied, ' I saw three of them in heaven. All were dressed 
in white, and all were very happy, and the children 
playing.' Shortly after, a message came from Mr. Casey 
in Carmel, giving information of the death of another 
child, and inviting them to attend the funeral." 

The spirit's powers are not weakened by sleep nor 
death-trance, but vastly increased ; just what we 
should expect if the spirit is to survive death, but al- 
together inexplicable if death is to extinguish us. 



IS SPIEITUALISM TEUB? 139 

What effect has the approach of death itself? In 
dro veiling, when the thread of life has been all but 
severed, and with the greatest difficulty animation has 
been restored to the apparently lifeless body, it is well 
known that the activity of the spirit has been by no 
means decreased, but often vastly increased. 

From a letter by F. Beaufort to Dr. W. Hyde, pub- 
lished in " The American Phrenological Journal," I ex- 
tract the following. He fell into the water, and says, 
"From the moment that all exertion had ceased, which, 
I imagine, was the immediate consequence of complete 
suffocation, a calm feeling of the most perfect tranquilli- 
ty superseded the previous tumultuous sensations : it 
might be called apathy, certainly not resignation ; for 
drowning no longer appeared to be an evil. I no 
longer thought of being rescued ; nor was I in any 
bodily pain. Tlie senses were deadened ; but not so 
the mind. Its activity seemed to be invigorated in a 
ratio which defies all description ; for thought rose after 
thought with a rapidity of succession that is not only 
indescribable, but probably inconceivable by any one 
who has not been himself in a similar situation. . . . 
Travelling backward, every past incident of my life 
seemed to glance at my recollection in retrograde suc- 
cession ; not, however, in mere outline, as here stated, 
but the picture filled up with every minute and col- 
lateral feature : in short, the whole period of my exist- 
ence seemed to be placed before me in a kind of pano- 
ramic review, and each act of it seemed to be accom- 
panied by a consciousness of right or wrong, or by 
some reflection on its cause or consequences ; indeed, 
many trifling events that had long been forgotten then 



140 IS SPIEITUALISM TEUE? 

crowded into my imagination, and with the character 
of recent familiarity." 

Could the man's body have been examined while 
this was going on, the surface would have been found 
cold, the whole of the arterial blood converted into 
black venous blood, and this distending the heart, the 
lungs, and the brain, rendering the whole physical man 
as unfit for action as a locomotive with the fire out, 
and the water in the boiler changed to ice. If we 
found a locomotive going at the rate of a thousand 
miles an hour under such circumstances, we should 
conclude that it ran by some other motive-power than 
steam. What remembered, thought, imagined, when 
the body was in this condition ? That which will re- 
member, think, and imagine when the body has re- 
turned to dust. 

As an evidence of this extraordinary memory in 
drowning, I present the following, taken from " The 
Rome Daily Sentinel." A held a bond of B for sev- 
eral hundred dollars, having some time to run. At its 
maturity, he found that he had put it away so care- 
fully that he could not find it. He called on B, re- 
lated the circumstance, and proposed to give him a 
receipt ; but B denied owing him any thing, and inti- 
mated that A wished to cheat him. Several years 
passed, when A, bathing in Charles River, sunk, and 
was completely unconscious before he was rescued. 
" On the first return of strength to walk, he left his 
bed, went to his book-case, took out a book, opened it, 
and handed his long-lost bond to a friend who was pres- 
ent. He then informed him, that when drowning and 
sinking, as he supposed, to rise no more, in a moment 
there stood out distinctly before him as a picture every 



IS SPIRITUALISM TEITE? 141 

act of his life, from the hour of childhood to the hour 
of sinking beneath the water ; and among them the 
circumstance of putting the bond in the book, the 
book itself, and the place in which he had put it in 
the book-case." 

The spirit apparently forgets nothing, and when re- 
leased from the body all our past is present to us, — 
ours forever. 

How exceedingly common it is for the dying to see 
and hear what those present are utterly unconscious 
of! It is easy to say that they are idle fancies cluster- 
ing around the dying man, that reason is too weak to 
dispel. They should at least be in harmony with his 
previous ideas if this theory of their origin be granted. 

A Methodist minister, Purcell P. Hamilton of Litch- 
field, III., near the close of a lingering illness, was en- 
tranced. His friends thought him gone ; but he unex- 
pectedly revived, and said to his wife, " I have not left 
you yet. I have been to see my heavenly home ; but 
they told me I could not go until I came back and 
told you that the teachings of all these years from my 
pulpit are false. Our ideas of heaven are all wrong. 
I have taught and thought we would die and go 
straight to God and glory. All wrong. Tell all you 
meet my last words to them, — all wrong. The spirit- 
home is a beautiful land ; but we must go up step by 
step, and work out our own salvation." 

It is so common for the dying to be clairvoyant, that, 
in every age, it has been noticed by the intelligent. 
Plutarch says in reference to it, " It is not probable, 
that, in death, the soul gains new powers which it 
was not before possessed of when the heart was con- 
fined with the chains of the body : but it is much more 



142 IS SPIEITUALISM TBUE? 

probable that these powers were always in being, though 
dimmed and clogged by the body ; and the soul is only 
then able to practise them when the corporeal bonds 
are loosened, and the drooping limbs and stagnant 
juices no longer oppress it." 

Schiller's last words when dying were, " Many things 
are growing plain and clear to me." Is this the talk 
of an expiring soul going down to the grave to come 
up no more, the night of annihilation closing around 
it ? It is the joyous exclamation of one long living in 
obscurity, who for the first time finds the windows ajar, 
and the liglit of a deathless morn looking in. Wo 
dwell in the twilight, and we pine for the glory of a 
day that must shine. 

So far, then, from the approach of death weakening 
the soul as it does the body, and thus rendering prob- 
able its dissolution with the body, it develops its pecu- 
liar powers, and prepares the way for their manifesta- 
tion, and thus gives us the assurance, that, when it is 
consummated, the spirit will be free to exercise those 
faculties untrammelled, which are manifested here in 
their greatest strength when the body is most weak. 

If the spirit exists after death, what can be more 
reasonable than that it should desire to communicate 
with its friends still in the body ? Can the mother 
forget the family from which death has torn her ? the 
patriot the country for which his life has been spent ? 
the youth the home around which all his associations 
are clustered ? If the emigrant thinks of his country 
over the sea, and sends messages to those whom he never 
again expects to see, how much more sliall those who 
have gone to the land of souls remember the loved 
ones remaining, and desire to give them tidings of 
their welfare ! 



IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 143 

Can it be done ? Dr. Gregory says, " I can vouch 
for this fact, — that a magnetizer can strongly affect a 
person who is not only in another room, or another 
house, or many hundred yards off, but who is utterly 
unaware that any thing is to be done." 

Dr. Foissac magnetized Paul Yillagrand at the dis- 
tance of three hundred miles. The doctor gave a note 
to his father, which he desired him to hand to Paul at 
half-past five, p.m. It read thus, '' I am magnetizing 
you at this moment : I will awake you when you have 
had a quarter of an hour's sleep." But the father, to 
make the experiment decisive, never gave the letter to 
his son. " Nevertheless, at ten minutes before six, 
Paul, being in the midst of his family, experienced a 
sensation of heat, and considerable uneasiness. His 
shirt was wet through with perspiration ; he wished to 
retire to his room : but they detained him. In a few 
minutes, he was entranced. In tliis state, he astonished 
the persons present, by reading, with his eyes shut, sev- 
eral lines of a book taken at hazard from the library, 
and by telling the hour upon a watch they held to him. 
He awoke in a quarter of an hour." 

If the spirit while in the body can influence the 
spirits of others in the body, at a distance of hundreds 
of miles, it is surely not unreasonable to suppose, that, 
when the spirit has dropped the body, it can still influ- 
ence them, and thus reveal its existence. Besides this, 
we have abundant evidence that the spirit does com- 
municate with the living, thus establishing the third 
fundamental principle of Spiritualism. 

On this subject we have the testimony of all ages. 
The sacred books of the Jews and Christians contain 
such accounts ^ and, although the fabulous character of 



144 IS SPIRITUALISM TIIUE? 

portions of the Bible leads to suspicion of all its mar- 
vellous statements, yet many of its accounts of spirit- 
ual manifestations are in harmony with those of other 
peoples and all time. 

It is noticeable, that, as people have become more 
intelligent, spiritual manifestations have increased in 
the same proportion. As chemistry became estab- 
lished, alchemy died out ; as astronomy advanced, as- 
trology retreated, and hides to-day only in the obscur- 
est corners : but as a knowledge of man's true nature 
increases, so do the evidences of communication be- 
tween the spirit-world and our own multiply around 
us. In the early history of the Jews, we find but few 
of them ; they were more common in the time of Jesus 
and his immediate followers, and are most common in 
this the most intelligent age the world has seen. 

In bringing forward testimony on this subject, the 
only difficulty is to choose out of the abundance pre- 
sented. Do we desire the testimony of a scientific 
man, let us take that of Prof. Hare, the well-known 
chemist, who at one time maintained most earnestly 
the mechanical theory of Faraday, but abandoned it 
in consequence of the experiments undertaken to 
demonstrate it. He visited a medium, through whom 
communications were received by the tipping of a 
table. The alphabet was placed upon a table, and, 
when a pencil held by a gentleman at the foot of the 
table passed over it, the table tipped when the right 
letter was indicated. In this way, this message was 
spelled out, "Light is dawning on the mind of your 
friend ; soon he will speak trumpet-tongued to the sci- 
entific world, and add a new link to that chain of evi- 
dence on which our hope of man's salvation is founded." 



IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 145 

This appeared to him almost unaccountable ; but he 
was resolved to prevent the possibility of deception. 
He made a disk of pasteboard about a foot in diameter, 
around which the letters of the alphabet were placed 
as much as possible out of their regular order. The 
disk was made to revolve upon an axis by a string 
which passed over a groove in the hub of the wheel ; 
a weight being attached to each end of the string, — a 
large one on the ground, and a smaller suspended on 
the other side of the wheel. The medium was seated 
at the table with a screen between her eyes and the 
disk. The table was tilted, and thus the disk, which 
was on the axle attached to it, was made to revolve, 
and the letters of the alphabet were brought under a 
stationary index before it. Prof. Hare sat in front of 
it, and said, " If there be a spirit present, let the letter 
y be brought under the index." The disk revolved 
to the letter y. But I will let him tell the story in 
his own words. " ' Will the spirit be so kind as to give 
his initials V It revolved immediately to R. and to H. 
' What,' said I, ' my father ? ' It revolved again to the 
letter y, indicating the affirmative. ' Will you arrange 
these letters in alphabetical order ? ' The disk again 
moved ; and the letters were arranged as requested. 
' Will you now spell the name of Washington ? ' It 
was spelled. ' Now,' said a bystander, ' you must give 
up. You made this instrument to disprove Spiritual- 
ism, and you see it confirms it.' I remarked that this 
was the most important experiment which I had ever 
performed, if viewed as proving that the shade of my 
honored father was there. I said, ' You must allow 
me time to deliberate, and to repeat the experiment, 
before ultimately deciding.' " 



10 



146 IS SPirJTtJALISM TRUE? 

Subsequently lie obtained analogous results by an- 
other medium, who had not previously seen his appa- 
ratus, and whom he had never seen before. 

It was suggested that the medium might be clair- 
voyant, and thus see through the disk. To obviate this 
objection, Prof. Hare procured a brass ball, something 
like a billiard-ball, and placed upon it a smooth plate 
of metal on which the hands of the medium rested, so 
that she could not possibly control the movements of 
the table. His father communicating with him under 
these circumstances, the name of an uncle of his, wlio 
was killed by the Arabs seventy years ago, was spelled 
out. " Also the name of a partner who came out and 
took care of his affairs during the Revolution," nobody 
present knowing the name but himself. Then the 
names of some English relatives were given, the name 
of an aunt who died forty years ago, and the name of 
his English grandfather's partner. Cards were held 
up; and the spirits accurately described them when 
neither the medium nor himself knew what thoy were. 
Sitting with a medium who was not a Latin scholar, 
he asked his father to point out the words in Virgil 
which he admired as describing the beating which 
Entellus gave Dares ; and he spelled out the words, 
'•' pulsatque versatque.'*^ 

No wonder that Prof. Hare became a Spiritualist, 
and announced it to the world, after such demonstra- 
tive tests as these ; and so, I think, would every other 
scientist, had he an equal determination to know the 
truth, and as much courage to avow it. 

Do we desire the testimony of a literary man, here is 
that of William Howitt, whose reputation is world- 
wide. 



IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 147 

" More than six years ago, I began to examine the 
phenomena of Spiritualism. I did not go to paid or even 
to public mediums. I sat down at my own table with 
members of my own family, or with friends, — persons 
of high character, and serious as myself in the inquiry. 
I saw tables moved, rocked to and fro, and raised re- 
peatedly into the air. I heard the raps, sometimes a 
hundred at once, in every imaginable part of tlie table, 
in all keys, and of various degrees of loudness. I ex- 
amined the phenomena thoroughly. Silly but playful 
spirits came frequently. I heard accordions play won- 
derful music as they were held in one hand, often by a 
person who could not play at all. I heard and saw 
hand-bells carried about the room in the air ; put first 
into one person's hand, and then into another's ; taken 
away again by a strong pull, though you could not see 
the hand touching them. ... As for communications 
professedly from spirits, they were of daily occurrence, 
and often wonderful. Our previous theological opin- 
ions were resisted and condemned when I and my wife 
were alone. 

" I have seen spirit-hands moving about ; I have felt 
them again and again. I have seen writing done by 
sph'its, by laying a pencil and paper in the middle of 
the floor, and very good sense written too. 

" I could give you a whole volume of the remarka- 
ble and even startling revelations made by our own de- 
parted friends at our own evening table ; those friends 
coming at wholly unexpected times, and bringing mes- 
sages of the most vital importance ; carrying them on 
from period to period, sometimes at intervals of years, 
into a perfect history. But these things are too sacred 
for the public eye." 



148 IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 

The testimony of Dr. Ashburner, a well-known Lon- 
don physician, is very satisfactory. " I have myself 
so often witnessed spiritual manifestations, that I could 
not, if I were inclined, put aside the evidences whicli 
have come before me. When Mr. Charles Foster was 
in London in 1863, he was often in my house ; and 
numerous friends had opportunities of witnessing the 
phenomena which occurred in Ids presence. The sec- 
ond morning that he called on me was about two weeks 
after his arrival in England. Accidentally, at the same 
time arrived at my door. Lady C. H. and her aunt, wife 
of the Rgv. a. B. I urged them to come in, and 
placed them on chairs at the sides of my dining-table. 
Their names had not been mentioned ; Mr. Foster hav- 
ing retired to the farther extremity of the room, so as 
not to be able to see what the ladies wrote, I induced 
them each to write, upon separate slips of paper, six 
names of friends who had departed this world. These 
they folded into pellets, which were placed together. 

" Mr. Foster, coming back to the table, immediately 
picked up a pellet, and addressing himself to Mrs. A. E., 
' Alice,' he said, which made the lady start, and ask 
how he knew her name. He replied, ' Your cousin, 
John Whitney, whose name you wrote in that little 
piece of paper, stands by your side, and desires me to 
say, that he often watches over you, and reads your 
thoughts, which are always pure and good. He is de- 
lighted at the tenderness and care which you exhibit 
in the education of your children.' Then he turned 
towards me, and said, ' Alice's uncle is smiling benig- 
nantly as he is looking towards you. He says you 
and he were very intimate friends.' I said, ' I should 
like to know the name of my friend ; ' and Mr. Foster 



IS SPIEITUALISM TP.UE? 149 

instantly replied, ' Gaven. His Christian name will 
appear on my right arm.' 

" The arm was bared ; and there appeared in red 
letters, fully one inch and a quarter long, the name 
William, raised on the skin of his arm. Certainly, 
William Gaven was my dear old friend, and the uncle 
of the lady whose name is Alice. 

"Mr. Foster next addressed himself to Lady C, 
whom he had never seen before in his life. ' Your 

mother,' said he, ' the Marchioness of , stands by 

your side, and desires to give you her fond blessing 
and very affectionate love.' He added, ' Lady C, you 
wrote on a piece of paper I hold here the name of 
Miss Stuart. She stands by the side of your mother, 
and is beaming with delight at the sight of her pupil. 
She was your governess, and was much attached to 
you.' He added, ' That charming person, the mar- 
chioness, was a great friend of the doctor's. She is so 
pleased to find you all here ! Her Christian name is 
to appear on my arm. ' Mr. Foster drew up his sleeve, 
and tliere appeared in raised, red letters on the skin, 
the name Barbara." Dr. Ashburner adds, '' Here were 
cases in which it was quite impossible that the medium 
could have known any single fact relating to the fami- 
lies, or to the intimacies, of any of the persons present. 
I had myself formed his acquaintance only two days 
before ; and the ladies had arrived from a part of the 
country with which he could not possibly be ac- 
quainted." 

If it is said that this might be accomplished by 
mind-reading, then the question arises, How does it 
happen that the medium has no knowledge of this ? 
Can thisj the most wonderful of all powers, bo oxer- 



150 IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE ? 

cised unconsciously ? And why are such manifesta- 
tions invariably attributed to spirits by the manifesta- 
tions themselves ? Do mediums not only unconscious- 
ly read mind, move physical bodies, and write mes- 
sages, but at the same time unconsciously lie regard- 
ing the cause of these varied phenomena ? 

My own spiritual experience has been much like that 
of William Ho vvitt. I commenced the investigation 
of Spiritualism at home, with the members of our own 
family ; when we had raps, movement of tables, and, 
by these means, communications from unseen intelli- 
gences professing to be our departed friends, and giv- 
ing us satisfactory evidence of this. After this, I saw 
remarkable physical manifestations through mediums 
in Ohio, Indiana, New York, and Canada, — such as the 
elevation of heavy tables and other bodies when no 
person was in contact with them, the rooms in which 
these took place being at the time well lighted. I have 
seen hands repeatedly, and felt them still more often, 
when the hands of the only person in the room beside 
myself lay upon the table before me ; and this fre- 
quently in the broad daylight also. I have induced 
spirits to make for me impressions of their hands on 
plastic substances, such as putty and clay, and to draw 
their outlines with pencil on paper, which they have 
done repeatedly in my presence in a well-lighted room. 
On one occasion, I received in this way the outline of 
a hand larger than I ever saw ; when the only person 
present beside myself was a lady of average size, and 
both her hands at the time were on the table before 
me. 

1 have frequently received communications in writ- 
ing both on slate and paper j and in all cases this took 



IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 151 

place in the daytime, or in a lighted room, and under 
circumstances that rendered it utterly impossible for 
any person in the body to produce them. I desire no 
more evidence than I have had on this subject ; for it 
leaves no room for question or doubt. 

Those who can be satisfied by testimony upon this 
subject may certainly obtain all that is needed. If 
they desire personal experience, they need not go far to 
obtain that also, and know for themselves that Spiritual- 
ism is true, and rejoice in a knowledge of the most 
glorious gospel that was ever preached to mankind. 

Our graveyards are not the dwelling-places of the 
departed ; nor are their coffins the bedrooms in which 
they are to sleep till a trumpet-blast shall wake the 
dust, and call it forth to life again. There we lay 
away the shards, the cast-off cases of humanity, while 
the friends we mourn are sadly smiling at our sorrow, 
and longing to enlighten us, and bear up the load that 
presses the mourner's spirit down. 

What we call death is but an epoch in the soul's 
history. Life here is the first act in the great drama 
of existence ; and the curtain only falls to rise again, 
and show us a fairer scene, and introduce us to a better 
life. We mourn not the departure of our friends as 
those who are agonized with doubt as to whether they 
have gone to a heaven of pious bliss or a hell of abys- 
mal despair ; nor do we mourn as those who believe 
they are asleep, and that only a miracle can awake 
them. There is no gulf between us and them, that 
needs to be bridged ; no wall that needs to be scaled ; no 
vigilant gate-keepers to be eluded. In sorrow they 
are near to cheer us, in danger to warn, in temptation 
to strengthen. No selfish enjoyincnt eclipses iheir 



162 IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 

love or weakens their affection, and as surely as we 
part we shall meet again. 

Tell it to the ocean, and let his deep voice repeat it 
to the thousand islands that lie upon his broad breast ;^ 
tell it to the winds, and let its glad tidings be carried 
on their wings over the wide continents, and let earth's 
millions join in one grand hymn of praise. 

Let the mourner's tears be dried, and bid the orphan 
smile : death is no longer man's enemy ; by the angel 
of Spiritualism he swears eternal friendship to man- 
kind. 

Do I, then, indorse all that professes to come from 
the spirit-world ? By no means. Some things attrib- 
uted to this source are doubtless produced by fraud ; 
though by no means as much as some would have us 
believe. The charge of fraud has been made against 
some of the best people that ever lived ; and some timid 
ones have been broken down by it, who were as true 
and pure as Nature herself. Some phenomena at- 
tributed to spirits outside of the body are in reality 
produced by spirits still remaining in the body. These 
spirits, that are to do such wonderful things when they 
have left the body, possess the power, to a certain ex- 
tent, now, and frequently exercise it ; and multitudes 
innocently, because ignorantly, attribute to spirits what 
has no other source than themselves, it may be, in a 
peculiar condition. 

Nor do I indorse as good or true all that in reality 
comes from the spirit-world. We are spirits incased 
in clay : they are spirits who have dropped the case, 
but, in other respects, are identically the same. Every 
second a human being becomes a spirit; and the spirit- 
world cannot but abound with ignorant, vicious, un- 



IS SPIRITUALISM TRUE? 153 

developed spirits. Sliall we submit to their dictation ? 
Shall we give ourselves up to their influence regardless 
of their character ? The consequences might be, as 
they have frequently been, most disastrous. We must 
stand by our own sense of what is true, riglit, and 
pure, and never move a step without good reason. 

Prove to ns that you are in communication with 
Franklin, Channing, Parker, George Fox, or Jesus, 
what then ? We must still take what they say for 
what it seems to us to be worth when weighed in the 
scale of our judgment ; for, if God spoke, we could do 
no other. Herein differs modern from ancient Spirit- 
ualism. Ancient Spiritualism — that which the Chris- 
tian Church believes in and indorses to-day — overpow- 
ers the individual soul, robs it of its heritage, sets a 
master over it who graciously permits it to echo Iiis 
voice. But we have learned that a man's soul is to 
him the highest tribunal in the universe ; by that he 
must stand first, last, and always. All revelations 
must appeal to that, and nothing be accepted that it 
rejects ; each for himself, making daily the heaven 
that ho desires, and bearing it witli him to the land of 
souls, whither Time bears us with rapid strides. 



OETHODOXY FALSE. 



OETHODOXT FALSE SINCE MRITUALISM 
IS TEUE. 



Everybody has heard of the witty saying of Sydney 
Smith, " Orthodoxy is my doxy, and heterodoxy the 
other man's doxy." But this is not what I mean by 
orthodoxy, when I say orthodoxy is false since spirit- 
ualism is true. I mean the peculiar religious doctrines 
taught by what are called the evangelical churches, — 
those who take the ground that the Bible is the inspired 
word of God ; that man is totally depraved, and born 
to do evil continually, in consequence of Adam's trans- 
gression ; who believe in the eternity of torment to 
which he thus became liable, and from which he can 
only be saved by belief in Jesus, the second person of 
the Trinity, through whose merits the true believer 
escapes the pit of woe, and passes through the pearly 
gates into the New Jerusalem, there to sing the praises 
of his Redeemer forever. The orthodox, therefore, in- 
clude Catholics, Orthodox Quakers, Methodists, Bap- 
tists, Presbyterians, and a host of others. 

We are in daily communication with the spirits of 
the departed, some of whom never belonged to any 
religious organization, never attended church, believed 
not in Jesus as a Son of God, and the Saviour, never 
professed to be born more than once, and were there- 

157 



158 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 

fore orthodoxically wicked ; yet we find they are in no 
hopeless prison, — 

" Where sinners must with devils dwell, 
In darkness, fire, and chains." 

They are swimming in no shoreless brimstone lake, 
with waves of damnation rolling over their guilty 
souls ; they are not crying for a drop of water to cool 
their scorclied tongues ; they are not even advising 
their friends who are still on earth to believe the 
doctrines of orthodoxy, and obey its requirements, that 
they may improve their condition when they pass to 
the land of souls. 

But some of our departed friends were members of 
orthodox churches : they did believe in Jesus as their 
Saviour ; they were baptized in his name ; they believed 
themselves mysteriously born again, and died in the 
faith, with the full prospect of the heaven that had been 
preached to them, as a reward of the righteous, from 
their infancy. We now converse with them, and find 
them to be just such persons as we knew upon earth, 
save that their orthodoxy has been terribly shattered. 
They confess to us that the religious views that they 
held here were altogether contrary to the facts as they 
find them there, and that orthodoxy is as wrong as its 
name is right. They find no golden city with gates 
of pearl, no God seated upon a great white throne, no 
Jesus at his right hand, no twelve subordinate thrones 
upon which his fishermen disciples sit, judging the 
twelve tribes of Israel. There are no eye-full beasts 
guarding the throne, and crying, " Holy, holy, holy ! " 
day and night ; nor elders forever throwing down their 
crowns, wiiile the crowd look on in holy admiration. 



SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 159 

Thus we find that hell and heaven alike depart ; and 
orthodoxy, dressed in crape, goes weeping after them. 
No more can the orthodox poet picture, as did Pol- 
lok in his " Course of Time," the sinners' abode : — 

" Wide was tlie place, 
And deep as wide, and ruinous as deep. 
Beneath, I saw a lake of burning fire, 
With tempest tossed perpetually ; and still 
The waves of fiery darkness [strange darkness that] *gainst the 

rocks 
Of dark damnation broke, and music made 
Of melancholy sort ; and overhead, 
And all around, wind warred with wind, storm howled 
To storm, and lightning, forked lightning, crossed, 
And thunder answered thunder, muttering sounds 
Of sullen wrath. And, far as sight could pierce, 
Or down descend in caves of hopeless depth, 
Through all that dungeon of unfading fire, 
I saw most miserable beings walk ; 
Burning continually, yet unconsumed ; 
Forever wasting, yet enduring still ; 
Dying perpetually, yet never dead. 
Some wandered lonely in the desert flames : 
And some in fell encounter fiercely met, 
With curses loud, and blasphemies that made 
The cheek of darkness pale ; and as they fought, 
And cursed, and gnashed their teeth, and wished to die, 
Their hollow eyes did utter streams of woe. 
And there were groans that ended not, and sighs 
That always sighed, and tears that ever wept 
And ever fell, but not in mercy's sight." 

This was the hell of orthodoxy. It has cooled down 
considerably since this was written. It was once as 
fiery as the primeval earth, when white-hot billows 
rolled along its breast ; but it cools so much more 
rapidly, that our children may expect to find it a very 



160 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 

comfortable place of abode. All will yet learn that 
no worse hell exists than earth makes : the soul's con- 
dition, wherever that soul may be, produces hell or 
heaven, if we still make use of the names. If any 
thing has been demonstrated by the unnumbered 
communications received from the spirit-world within 
the last twenty years, it is this. 

Since the hell of orthodoxy is false, man was never 
in danger of it, and he never needed any Jesus to 
save him from what never had an existence. Jesus, 
then, is no Saviour in the orthodox sense : no salvation 
came by him. He was no more sent of God than 
Patrick's baby, born yesterday ; for the necessity of his 
being sent did not exist. He was no more the Son of 
God than Socrates who preceded him, John Brown 
who came after him, or we who criticise him ; no more 
a Saviour than Socrates and Plato wlio shine like stars 
in the pagan heavens, or Garrison and Phillips who 
shine in ours to-day, — all of these men far in advance 
of Jesus in many respects. 

The whole plan of salvation indeed, as taught by 
orthodoxy, is essentially unreasonable, mean, and un- 
manly : it will not bear tlie light of rational investiga- 
tion for a moment. The whole human race had 
become, by the sin of the first pair, exposed to eternal 
torments, and were of themselves utterly unable to do 
one good deed, or think one good thought. They had 
no power to elevate themselves from the horrible pit 
in which they are born, none to save themselves from 
the terrible consequences of their crimes. In this lost 
condition, God, in his great mercy, formed the plan to 
save us through the merits of his well-beloved Son, 
who knew no sin, but became a sin-offering for us, 



ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 161 

that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
him. He suffered in our room and stead. Our chas- 
tisement was laid upon him, God treating him as if he 
had been guilty of all human crime ; and we, by faith 
in him, are treated by God as if we had lived his life 
of perfect goodness. We have no virtue ; but the 
virtue of Jesus is attributed to us. We deserve 
nothing but hell, — even the best of us ; but, by some 
godly hocus-pocus, we are to be conjured into heaven. 
We are filthy, vile, abominable ; but, as the old 
Orthodox hymn says, — 

" Jesus, thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty are, ray glorious dress : 
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, 
With joy shall I lift up my head." 

What a contemptible piece of business is this! 
Where is he, possessing the soul of a man, that would 
wish to sneak into heaven under the cloak of Jesus 
(and such a cloak ! ) when he knew in his own soul 
that he had no right to be there ? Instead of lifting 
up his head with joy, a decent man would hang his 
head, and blush for shame. Suppose that robe of 
" blood and righteousness " should be torn from 
his back, and he revealed in his hideous nakedness ! 

The heaven of orthodoxy must be one of poltroons, 
and spiritless, fawning sycophants, who chant forever 
the praises of Him who cheated the Prince of Darkness 
of his due, and opened a palace of bliss for hell- 
deserving sinners, who, for the privilege of entering, 
must bow and sing glory to him who redeemed them 
forever. Such a scheme could never have been devised 
in America : it smacks of the despotism, the servility, 
n 



162 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 

and the meanness of the Old World of kings, my lords, 
serene highnesses, and grand seigniors. The true, un- 
biassed soul intuitively scorns it. It says, " If I have 
done deeds worthy of hell, then to hell I will go, and 
bear its penalties like a man, asking no odds of the 
torturing gods. Let me pass for what I am (cloaks 
for hypocrites and cowards) : I desire no heaven that 1 
have not won, and I fear no hell that I do not 
deserve." The man who deserves heaven will have it. 
He carries the key to its gate in his soul, and needs 
no Jesus to indorse him. Give us justice, and what 
more do we need in the universe ? All the sin of all 
the men that ever lived never deserved the pain of an 
orthodox hell for a single day ; and any being that 
could be unjust enough to make it should be the first 
to suffer in it. 

Reason cannot but reject this whole " scheme " of 
salvation. Finite man is guilty of an infinite offence 
against God. He incurs by this means a debt that in- 
finity alone can pay. All earth's treasures cast into 
the balance weigh not the millionth of a feather ; the 
brightest jewels of heaven move not the balance one 
jot: only the exchequer of a God can furnish the 
means to pay the mighty debt we owe. What shall 
be done ? If the debt is not paid, hell and its eternal 
torments await every sinful soul. At length, Jehovah 
plans the wondrous scheme : Jesus, one with the 
Father, " very God of very God," as the Athanasian 
Creed calls him, comes down to this abode of guilty 
wretches. He is born of a woman, — a pure and spot- 
less virgin, lives a perfect life, preaches the gospel of 
the kingdom, works the most wonderful miracles, is 
despised and rejected of men, spat upon, buffeted, and 



SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 163 

is crucified, the just for the unjust. He bore man's 
sins, suffered in his stead, washed out with the blood 
of a God the damning spot of guilt in God's book of 
justice, paid the infinite debt we owed ; and God can 
now be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in 
Jesus. 

What a medley ! — God is the creditor ; yet God, in 
the person of his Son, pays the debt. Man is the 
debtor : the debtor is poor, and cannot pay one cent of 
the infinite amount he owes. God, in a voice of thun- 
der, and with a look that strikes terror to the guilty 
sinner's heart, demands payment of the debt, and 
holds his glittering sword ready to cut him down un- 
less the sum is paid. Man, in an agony, looks up, ex- 
pecting the blow to descend. But now God's pity is 
moved for the trembling wretch. " You cannot pay, 
I know," says he ; " but the debt must be paid to the 
uttermost farthing. How else can my justice be satis- 
fied ? Now I think of a plan ; " and, taking a full purse 
from his pocket, he hands it to the sinner, who returns 
it to his creditor. God pockets it with a satisfied air. 
The debt is paid; justice is satisfied; and the sinner 
may now bo justified. And this is the wonderful plan 
of salvation that angels desire to see into. Blind 
must that soul be that cannot see through it ! Man 
was so wicked before Jesus came, that God could by 
no means pardon him ; but he kills God, and thus 
crowns his wickedness, and God is graciously pleased, 
when he pleads the merits of Jesus, to forgive him, 
•receives him into his house, and calls him his son ! 
Yet, now that the debt is paid, and full satisfaction 
given, not one in ten receives the benefit: the great 
body of the human race must languish forever in 
hell, eteiiaal prisoners for debt. 



164 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 

The God whom we are told declares that he will by 
no means clear the guilty, and that every man shall 
be rewarded according to his works, is, by this salva- 
tion, represented, not only as clearing the guilty, but 
predicating this clearance upon the sufferings of the 
innocent, and rewarding them, not according to their 
works, but their belief in tlie works of another. 

The cruelty of God cannot be surpassed : he is, ac- 
cording to this salvation, the veriest Shylock : "I will 
have the due and forfeit of my bond, though every 
soul that I have made in deep damnation endless 
sink." At the same time, he lias made tliem so beg- 
garly poor, that tliey cannot pay. The sword of his 
justice, red-hot, can only be cooled in the blood of his 
innocent Son ; and he is even yet to wreak his ven- 
geance upon the great mass of mankind, who with good 
sense refuse to accept such a useless, contradictory, 
irrational, and unmanly system. 

The God who made this plan must have less judg- 
ment than an intelligent school-boy, less conscience 
than a pettifogger, and less mercy tlian a Confederate 
prison-keeper. Hear what Watts, the orthodox poet, 
says of him, — 

" Our God appeared consuming fire ; 

And Vengeance was his name. 
E-ich were the drops of Jesus' blood 

That calmed his frowning face. 
That sprinkled o'er his burning throne, 

And turned the wrath to grace." 

What a monster ! 

No wonder that men and women love Jesus, pray to 
Jesus, and sing, — 

" Jesus, lover of my soul, 
Let me to thy bosom fly." 



SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 165 

God is furious as a chafed lion ; Jesus, gentle as a turtle- 
dove : God is the jailer ; Jesus, the deliverer of those 
that are bound : God is the heartless Jew, saying, " I 
stay here on my bond ; " Jesus, the gentle Portia, sug- 
gesting to him, " Mercy is twice blessed: it blesseth 
him that gives, and him that takes." Yet both arc, 
after all, the same individual. It would seem as if 
such a story could only have been received on the 
principle that it is right for God to do what would be 
infamous in a man ; and that what in us would be utter 
folly may be in him superlative wisdom. And, when 
a man comes to that conclusion to-day, he will be 
prepared to kiss the pope's toe to-morrow. It needs 
but the fearless exercise of reason, and such gods will 
be speedily cast into the limbo where lie the defunct 
deities of Greece and Rome. 

But, if Jesus is no Saviour, there is no forgiveness 
of sin to those who trust in him or pray to him. Put 
as much faith and trust in a rubber doll, and there is no 
doubt it would be equally efficacious in removing guilt, 
and sending the repenting sinner home rejoicing. 
" But I have felt it A^re," replies the Christian, placing 
his hand upon his breast. Yes, I have no doubt : 
that is just where I supposed you felt it. But the 
Mohammedan feels it here ; and who saves him ? The 
Catholic after confession, the Mormon, and the Bud- 
dhist, feel it here; and who saves all these ? You ought 
to know it in your brain. The judgment is of infinite- 
ly more importance than the feelings in such matters, 
and, when properly cultivated and unbiassed, will lead 
you into truth. 

The believer in Jesus is not saved from sin : he is 
not even saved from the filthy habit of tobacco-chew- 



166 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE 

ing, as any church-sexton will tell you ; and, on com* 
raunion-days, you may see those who have been 
cleansed in the blood of the Lamb take the quid out 
of their mouths, that they may put the body of Jesus 
in ; and he then suffers a worse fate thun he did on 
Calvary. The Christian believer is not saved from 
ignorance, bigotry, sickness, poverty, or, indeed, any 
evil ; and all professions of this character result either 
from ignorance, or an intention to deceive. Salvation 
by Jesus is a delusion ; and the sooner we see it and 
proclaim it, the better for mankind. 

But if these orthodox doctrines are untrue, then 
the Bible, on which they rest, is untrue. It teaches the 
existence of an " everlasting, fire prepared for the 
devil and his angels," — a " lake that burns with fire 
and brimstone ; " and, if the Bible-writers had been 
acquainted with the article, it had doubtless burned 
with petroleum also. The orthodox heaven is the 
heaven of the Bible : its God-man is he who says, 
'^ Before Abraham was, I am," and, "He that hath 
seen me hath seen the Father." It is the Bible that 
represents Jesus as the Saviour; and by its texts, ham- 
mered like nails, every Sunday, into rickety souls, 
orthodoxy is still supported, and scares its victims from 
the exercise of their reason, or cajoles them into the 
support of its delusions. 

Man does not go down to the grave at death to como 
up no more, as tlie Bible declares ; neither does he 
sleep in the dust till awakened by a great trumpet- 
blast, as tiie Bible also declares. There will be no 
judgment-day, with a great king reviewing all nations, 
divided into the two classes, righteous and wicked ; for 
there are no such persons, all people being partly good, 



OETHOBOXY FALSE. SPIRIIUALISM TRUE. 167 

and partly bad. Oar friends that departed are neither 
dead nor asleep : they live and love, and come to us, 
teaching us that the life of the future is but a continu- 
ation of that of the present, and altogether different 
from the gloomy and unnatural views of it giveii in the 
Bible, which must cease, before long, to be regarded as 
authority by a single thinking soul. 

You tell me that the Bible is the text-book of our 
churches ; it is read in our schools, recognized in our 
courts of justice, and reverenced even by our men of 
science. Yes ; and it was the text-book of all slave- 
holders from New Jersey to Texas ; it was reverenced 
by Constantino, the bloody tyrant of the fourth cen- 
tury, and is reverenced to-day by nearly every criminal 
that our prisons hold. The less that is said about the 
reverence that men of science have for it, the better. 
The reverence that such men as Agassiz, Dana, Daw- 
son, and others, have for it, is the fraternal greeting of 
Joab, who speaks peaceably to Abner, but smites him 
under the fifth rib, so that he dies : a kiss is on their 
lips, but a dagger in their hands. 

We cannot do otherwise than discard the Bible as 
authority ; and, should it be retranslated and amended 
a thousand times, it would still be the same. It 
abounds with the grossest fables ; it tells the filthiest 
and bloodiest stories ; it contains bad grammar, bad 
logic, innumerable contradictions, bad science, and, 
what is worse, bad morality. It has been the bul- 
wark of slavery, woman's degradation, bigotry, and re- 
ligious persecution, in every age, and blasts every soul 
that submits with unquestioning reverence to its 
teachings. Under the direction of orthodoxy, it has 
made Jesus* a highwayman, who clutches men by the 



168 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 

throat, and demands, " Your soul's life, or belief in 
my doctrine." And we have been so cowardly as to 
allow him to parade our highways, and throttle our 
citizens, almost without expostulation, because he lets 
loose the hound of public opinion upon those who 
refuse to yield to his outrageous demand. 

Jesus must come to us as a philosopher does, and 
present his reasons for the faith that he demands ; he 
must place his doctrine before us as a merchant does 
his wares, and we must judge for ourselves whether 
they are worthy of our acceptance. What should we 
think of the merchant who demanded that we should 
close our eyes before we purchased his goods ? We 
should naturally conclude that they would not bear 
examination, and that he wished to cheat us. When 
a man says to us, " He that believeth not what I teach 
shall be damned," he is attempting to close the eyes 
of our reason ; and we need to be doubly cautious in 
receiving what he presents. " So much of your doc- 
trine as appears to us to be reasonable, Jesus, we will 
accept ; and, if you are a sensible man, this is all you 
can desire : if you are otherwise, we are not to be 
troubled by you." 

The day of unquestioning acceptance, of childish, 
gaping belief, is forever over. We say to Moses, 
" Come with your old stories of God-planted gardens ; 
of God-created innocent people, who did not know 
good or evil till they had partaken of a mysterious 
and forbidden fruit ; of wonderful walking and talking 
snakes ; of the ark that saved ten times as many as 
could get into it : we will receive you as we do the 
Arab with his " Nights' Entertainments," and Swift 
with his stories of the Liliputians and Brobdingnagians. 



SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 169 

One is as reasonable as the other. Men are as likely 
to be forty feet high as to be nine hundred and sixty- 
nine years old. Yon are jast as welcome as they. 
Your tales can go with those of " Sinbad the Sailor," 
the "Wonderful Lamp," and the "Forty Thieves," — 
no worse thieves than the Israelites after they had been 
forty years under your tuition. You saw God as 
Aladdin saw the enchanted garden. You talked with 
him as really as Aladdin with the geni, and received 
the tables of stone from him just as truly as Sinbad 
picked up the precious stones in the Valley of Dia- 
monds. But you must not expect of us any more 
than this. You cannot make us believe that you talked 
with the Universal Soul ; that he engaged you to 
make the fantastic fooleries for your tabernacle, and 
sat upon a shittim-wood box, and chatted with you by 
the hour,* and permitted impertinences from you that 
a king would not permit from his prime-minister. 
We tell you plainly that you state, what, in the nature 
of things, must be false, and what, if any man should 
declare to-day, his neighbors would consider him in 
consequence deranged or an infamous liar." 

We will give the Bible a place with the Koran, the 
Talmud, the Book of Mormon, the Yedas and Shasters, 
Swedenborg's works, and Davis's Divine Revelations, — 
no more from God than they, and no more to be taken 
as authority than they. 

But if the Bible of orthodoxy is false, so is the God 
that it reveals, — Jehovah, the great object of religious 
worship in the churches all over this broad land. The 
Jewish Jehovah is no less an idol than the Beelzebub 
of the Philistine, or the Jove of the Roman. The one 

* Exodus XXV. 10, 22. 



170 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 

is just as blessed as the other ; the one is just as mucli 
our Maker as the other. If the man who worships 
Jupiter is an idolater, the man who worships Jehovah 
is equally so. If the temples of Jupiter were the 
fanes of an idolatrous people, then the steeple-crowned 
churches of orthodoxy are the temples of idola- 
trous worship ; and the ministers who officiate in their 
pulpits are but priests at the altar of the one great idol. 
A prayer offered to Jupiter is just as good as a prayer 
offered to Jehovah : " Jupiter ! father of the gods, 
and lord of lords ; thou who created the heavens and 
the earth, and man to dwell upon it : we beseech thee 
to hear our prayer, and give heed to the voice of our 
supplication. Thou wert the god of Remus and Rom- 
ulus, the god of Caesar and Seneca, and thou art our 
god, and we will worship thee. Thou wert with thy 
people, the Romans, and subdued all nations upon 
earth to their sway ; thou gavest them dominion from 
sea to sea, and from Rome to the ends of the earth. 
Jupiter ! be with us as thou wert with them ; subdue 
our enemies before us ; let thy spirit, and the spirit of 
thy wife Juno, descend, and dwell in our hearts, and 
abide with us forever. Hoar us and help us. Give us 
of thy light, thy wisdom, and thy power, that we may 
serve thee with our whole souls while here, and be fit- 
ted to enjoy the heaven of the gods hereafter." Why 
is not that as good as ninety-nine liundredths of the 
prayers offered in our orthodox churches ? It will as- 
cend just as high, and be just as effectual in bringing 
a blessing dowa. Jove is as nigh to them that call 
upon him as Jehovah ; and we are as much his off- 
spring as we are the children of Him whom Paul 
calls the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 



ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 171 

What has the Soul of the universe to do with that 
being who cursed Adam and Eve, and Eve more than 
Adam, for doing what, with the nature he had given 
them, they could not help doing ? — a being who curses 
on account of them every child born into the world. 
Is the Soul of the universe related to Him who walked 
about in a garden, and, like children playing at hide- 
and-seek, called out, '' Adam, where art thou? To 
Him who wrestled with a tricky Jewish stock-breeder 
for a whole niglit, and only escaped from his hands by 
putting his thigh out of joint ? 

What have we to do with a being that turned water 
into blood, made lice out of dust, filled the land of Egypt 
with flies and frogs, and at length murdered more 
than a million people, because Pharaoh did what he 
had predetermined that he should do, and so hardened 
his heart that he could not avoid doing ? — a being 
who gave a country already occupied to a nation who 
had no riglit to a foot of it, and made every man in 
that nation a murderer that they might conquer and 
possess it ? 

Was it the Soul of the universe that tempted Abra- 
ham to slay his cherished son, and, when the infatuated 
patriarch took up the knife to perform the dreadful 
deed, sent his angel to stay the murderous hand, and 
said, '• In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiply- 
ing I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, 
and as the sand which is upon the seashore. . . . And 
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed 
because thou hast obeyed my voice " ? 

What a pious old saint to be sure ! — ready to commit 
a murder because a voice commanded him. Human 
nature, and the God within, should have led him to 



172 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 

reply, "• I won't touch the lad for you nor the uni- 
verse ; and I despise you for asking me to do such an 
infamous deed." When men set up such a great 
bloody idol as this for a God, it is our duty, as recipi- 
ents of clearer light, to overthrow it, and deliver the 
world from its curse. 

Neither Elohim nor Jehovah created the earth and 
the heavens in six days, nor in sixty millions. He did 
not make man about six thousand years ago ; for man 
has been here a hundred times as long. He did not 
curse man with death ; for death was in the world ages 
before man made his appearance. In short, he never 
did any thing, for he is not ; and his worshippers are 
as truly idolaters as those whose condition they deplore. 

But I am asked, " How is it that men of well- 
developed minds and cultivated intellects have bowed 
down to this God, and accepted the religion that in- 
culcates his worship ? Why is it, that, among the 
most intelligent people of this planet, Jesus is re- 
garded as the Saviour, and Jehovah as the God and 
Father, of all ? " 

The mass of the people ask only that a thing shall 
be popular. If they find a faith in existence in their 
country when they arrive, — and where is the country 
destitute of one ? — ninety-nine out of every hundred 
draw it in as they do their mother's milk. When 
grown to the age of understanding, how difficult to 
deliver ourselves from the influence of early trainings 
and still more, perhaps, to resist the psychologic influ- 
ence of the masses surrounding us ! As the magnet- 
ism of the earth causes every poised needle to point to 
the north ; so the influence of a people's faith bears on 
every individual, and tends to bring each to the same 



SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 173 

opinion. But few are able to withstand its power. 
Of a thousand born in Arabia, there is not, probably, 
more than one who thinks of questioning the popular 
faith, — "There is one God, and Mohammed is his 
prophet." Tell them that Mohammed was like other 
men, except that he was more shrewd and more 
fanatical, and they exclaim at once, " You infidel 
dog ! " The more intelligent say, " If you have no 
respect for our prophet, have some for these indispu- 
table facts : Mohammedans number to-day one hun- 
dred and thirty millions. Established six hundred 
years after Cliristianity, our religion has supplanted it 
in its original home. It has overspread, not only 
Arabia, but Persia, Turkey, Palestine, a large portion 
of South-eastern Asia, and half of Africa. When all 
Christian countries were buried in the ignorance of the 
dark ages, then science flourished only where our 
religion fostered it. Can you not see the hand of God 
in such a career ? and is it not evident that Moham- 
med was indeed what he proclaimed, — the prophet of 
God? " We cannot see this, of course. Neither can 
I see the hand of God in the career of Jesus, nor in 
Christianity since his death. When Christianity was 
first taught, Jesus was expected to be seen " coming 
in the clouds" every day, to reward those who believed 
in him, and punish all who rejected his gospel. What 
more natural than for the multitude, who desire to be 
on what seems the safe side, to accept this simple faith 
in Jesus, which promises such unspeakable blessings 
here and hereafter, and deliverance from the terrible 
woes denounced against the unbeliever ? When the 
multitude have accepted a certain religion, how few, 
even of men of science, have backbone enough to 



174 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 

reject it, when at heart they despise the creed that 
cramps them ! Humboldt is content privately to sneer 
at orthodoxy, but never publicly attacks it. Agassiz 
states what falsifies the Mosaic story, and evidently 
disbelieves it, and yet so writes as to lead people to 
think that he credits ifs fables. Miiller, the linguist, 
shows conclusively, that he has outgrown all faith in 
the miraculous inspiration of the Bible ; but his posi- 
tion keeps him from boldly declaring the fact. It is 
not bearing false witness to say, that at least three- 
fourths of the scientific professors in England and 
America have no faith in Christianity as a miraculous 
religion; but their position is such, that very /etf dare 
to be true to their inward convictions. 

But I am asked, " How could Jesus have attained 
the lofty position that he at present occupies, how 
could he have commanded the veneration of the 
wisest and the best for nearly two tliousand years, if 
he was not indeed the Son of God, and the Saviour 
of mankind ? " 

The time in which he was born was one of igno- 
rance and superstition ; faith in miracles was almost 
universal ; and but little knowledge existed of the 
operations of natural law. Tlie whole Jewish nation 
was looking for the Messiah ; and this was just the soil 
in which he might be expected to spring up. How 
many who believe in Jesus in America would accept 
as a Son of God, and a miraculous Saviour, the man 
who could present no better credentials than Jesus 
did ? — his mother denying that he was his reputed 
fatlier's son, the only evidence to show that he was 
not illegitimate being such as dreams furnish. He 
lives for thirty years, but does scarcely any thing 



175 

worthy of record: he picks out for his disciples 
twelve illiterate and superstitious fishermen, who ap- 
pear, from the record, to have been ready to believe 
any thing that their master told them. When the 
sceptical very properly ask him for a sign, he abuses 
them by calling them an evil and adulterous genera- 
tion. Should a man perform all the miracles that 
Jesus is said to have performed, how many believers 
would he have now ? — not one-half of those who saw 
him do them. Circumstances favored the claim of 
Jesus, just as they favored Mohammed, and as they 
favored Gautama. Jesus was not the first, by a hun- 
dred, who had called himself the Christ, or was so 
considered by others ; and, after his time, there were 
" Christs many." How could Gautama be the centre 
of attraction to thousands of millions (four hundred 
millions now living), if he was not what the Buddhists 
believe him to have been, — a god, and the savior of 
mankind ? How came such gods as Zeus, Jove, Her- 
cules, Bacchus, and Esculapius, to be worshipped by 
the master-intellects of Greece and Rome for ages ? — 
beings that never existed at all, yet commanded the 
heart's adoration of thousands of millions of the wisest 
and best of their time. Do you, Protestant, suppose 
that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was any more than a 
dark-eyed, chatty Jewish maiden, who, going barefoot 
to the well at Nazareth, captivated the mechanic, 
Joseph, as he worked on the roof of a neighboring 
house ? Yet read the Catholic prayer-book, and see 
the adoration paid to their queen of heaven, the 
mother of God, whom millions beg to intercede for 
them. 

When a man asks me to accept Christianity because 



176 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 

of its widespread power and influence, I say to him, 
Why not turn Buddhist ? Christianity numbers two 
hundred millions of believers ; but Buddhism has a list 
of four hundred millions. If the fact contained in the 
first figures makes Christianity the true religion, and 
Jesus the Son of God, then Buddhism must be doubly 
true, and Gautama twice as much God's son. 

Jesus was a man who taught many beautiful and 
excellent lessons ; a man who sympathized with the 
poor, and denounced their tyrants, but at the same time 
taught many lessons that were neither true nor beau- 
tiful ; a man who displayed overweening self-esteem, 
and who was much more desirous that men should be- 
lieve in him than that they should be true to them- 
selves. He is no more our master than George Fox, 
John Wesley, or Joseph Smith. We do not therefore 
exhort men to " stand up for Jesus," but to stand up 
for humanity that needs it. Man has been trampled 
upon, his reason denounced, his selfliood cast down, 
that an idol miglit be elevated upon it. Jesus is the 
Christian Juggernaut. In India, the devotees throw 
their bodies before the idol : in Christian countries, 
they prostrate their souls before theirs ; and Jesus in 
his triumphal car, drawn by his blinded followers, 
encouraged by his priests, rides ever over them. Let 
a man offer his reasonable protest against this idolatry, 
and he is at once denounced as the vilest criminal ; the 
orthodox bloodhounds are put upon his track, and their 
hayings tell how gladly they would hunt the heretic to 
death if they only had the power, as they had before 
intelligence muzzled them. 

All these false, then is orthodoxy false. These 
churches of the living God, so called, are shams every 



SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 177 

one ; and the ceremonies performed in them the veriest 
child's play. What has the Soul of the universe to 
do with their pompous prayers, their silly rituals, their 
sprinklings, dippings, and port-wine sippings, called 
holy sacraments ? what to do with their begging, be- 
seeching, sometimes howling prayer-meetings ? their 
mesmeric revivals, in which the hallucination of one 
is communicated to the many, and a foolish consistency 
leads men to cling to it for life ? God has no more to 
do with all this than he has with the shoe-shops of 
Massachusetts, or the printing-offices ; and it would 
be just as proper to call a ball-club the club of God as 
a hundred ignorant orthodox believers God's church. 
It is high time that the pretensions of the high priests 
of a no better than pagan mythology were scouted, and 
a true estimate made of their sanctity, knowledge, and 
power. Professing to know God, tliey are the most 
ignorant of him, for they do not study Nature by sci- 
ence, which alone reveals him ; pretending to teach men 
the way to heaven, they close the door against the very 
angels who come to reveal it. 

Spiritualism is to aid greatly in delivering us from 
orthodox tyranny and idolatrous man-worship, leading 
men to the God and Saviour within that each possesses, 
to the salvation that comes by the exercise of our own 
powers, and to the heaven for all, of which no Peter 
keeps the key, and to which the name of Jesus is no 
" Open^ sesame.''' Think of the time and energy wasted 
in praising Jesus, praying to Jesus, preaching Jesus, 
and the labor and money squandered in spreading 
abroad fantastic statements concerning this man, over 
the world, instead of giving people a knowledge of 
themselves and the laws of the universe, — knowledge 
that concerns us every day. 

12 



178 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 

But orthodoxy has seen its greatest triumphs ; and its 
day of prosperity is over. Its feeble stars are paling 
in the light of the new morn that greets humanity. 
It is already ashamed of its hell, — a phantom conjured 
up in the days of ignorance by some undeveloped soul, 
who, in deep malignity, wished that those who had of- 
fended him here might be infinitely tortured hereafter. 
The brimstone and the smoke are indeed gone ; the 
Devil, the dusky jailer of the pit, is dead. And what 
becomes of orthodoxy then ? Hell has been the fire 
whose heat created nine-tenths of the steam that ran 
the machinery. Take the fire of hell out of a revival, 
and then try to keep it up ! You might as well think 
of running a locomotive by crowding the fire-box 
with ice-blocks. No fire, no steam ; no steam, no mo- 
tion ; the orthodox train at a dead stand-still. How 
many missionaries would wander into foreign lands to 
preach the story of the cross, if Jesus does not save his 
believers from hell ? How long would Christian 
churches be crowded to listen to dry-as-dust sermons, 
and nod over mile-long prayers, if the hearers did not 
imagine, that, in some way, this helps them " to escape 
the jaws of hell " ? 

Orthodoxy is doomed, and is powerless as its God to 
avert its doom. And why should we mourn ? It scat- 
ters its hymn-books, pious tracts, and Bibles, but stands 
at the door of our public library, and refuses on its 
market-day (Sunday) to open, and admit the hungry 
souls ; for that might diminish the attendance at its 
temples. It would thus stand at the door of heaven, 
if it had the power, and admit none but the bigots 
who can pronounce its shibboleth. It would " circum- 
navigate tlio globe to disturb the creed of a single beg- 



ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 179 

gar ; " but it would not stir a step to break the chains 
of four million slaves, and cursed, in the name of Je- 
hovah, all who did : but, when infidel abolitionists made 
antislavery popular, it joined in the cry for freedom, 
and now demands that all the credit of the slave's free- 
dom shall be given to the " church of the Lord Jesus 
Christ." It imprisoned Galileo ; it murdered Bruno ; 
it slandered and belied Thomas Paine, and still repeats 
its calumnies and lies ; it burned Michael Servetus ; 
it hung the Quakers, who were less orthodox than its 
creed ; it imprisoned Abner Kneeland, and compels our 
children to listen daily to the reading of its Jewish 
story-book, that it claims contains the will of '^ God 
Most High." If its prayers had been of any avail, it 
would have murdered Theodore Parker : it did its best, 
and now sits, and gnashes its teeth at those it is no 
longer able to tear. It dooms Dickens to damnation, 
because his heart was too large, and his intellect too 
clear, to accept its dogmas, and by his presence there 
makes its hell so much more attractive than its heaven. 
He had his faults, who is without them? but none 
one-half as bad as the bigotry of the reverend Maw 
worms that anathematize him. " He was no Chris- 
tian," say the bigots. Let us hope that he was not. 
He was something very much superior, — a man of sur- 
passing genius and world-wide humanity, whose name 
will be blessed when orthodoxy will be a by-word 
among all people. 

What, then, have we to do with orthodoxy ? Shall we 
give our money to raise its proud steeples ? shall we 
send our children to its Sunday schools to have fetters 
fastened upon their limbs that it will take years to 
brcnk? shall wc ]ny i'K)r pews in its heathen cemples. 



180 ORTHODOXY FALSE, SPIRITUALISM TRUE. 

and reverence its false gods ? If all who are reform- 
ers at heart would assert their individuality, we should 
soon see the good time that we hope for. Don't go 
ducking and bowing, cringing and crawling, through 
the world ; believing in Nature, and sacrificing to Je- 
hovah; believing in individuality, and yet paying 
priests, and building their "joss-houses!" "We can 
do infinitely better. 

Our God is Nature — father, mother. As near to thy 
child, hard-handed mechanic, and thy child as dear to 
God, as the infant Jesus was when he lay on the breast 
of Mary. On his broad bosom we shall be borne be- 
yond death to the glorious world of the hereafter, — 
life there a continuance of life here, a spiritual blos- 
soming of what this life has been but the bud. 

We can make no compromise with orthodoxy hence- 
forth and forever. Ours is a new religion, a new God, 
a new heaven, and a gospel which is destined to make 
a new earth. We do not blame the people who have 
accepted the old (they probably did the best they 
could) ; but these old skeletons shall not reach their 
bony hands out of their mouldy sepulchres, and drag 
us in to chatter with them. Ours the living present ; 
ours the sunshine and the song of birds, the sound of 
purling brooks, the joy of the living world ripening in 
God's smile, — the vestibule of heaven. 



WEAT IS RI&HT? 



WHAT IS RIGHT? 



It is Friday, the Mussulman^s holy day. The cry 
of the muezzin has stirred the sultry air, and thou- 
sands are flowing through the streets to the stately 
mosque. Let us follow. The swelling dome is over 
our heads, the marble pavement beneath our feet, and 
around us a host of bended worshippers, their hands 
clasped in the fervor of devotion. Listen to the 
voice of this kneeling supplicant by our side : " 
Allah ! I am weak, but thou art all-strong ; strengthen 
me to do the right, that I may enjoy hereafter the 
bliss of Paradise.'^ 

As he rises from his knees, we accost him, and say, 
" Friend, you have been praying to Allah, or God, to 
strengthen you to do right : will you please to tell us 
what you mean by right ? " — " Certainly,'' replies the 
Mussulman, with a look of sorrow for our ignorance 
of so simple yet important a subject. " There is one 
God, and Mohammed is his prophet. This God has 
graciously revealed his will to us, by his prophet, in 
his holy word the Koran, — a book superior to every 
other book in the world. To obey the commands of 

183 



184 WHAT IS RIGHT? 

God, as given in this book, is to do right ; and to dis- 
obey them is to do wrong. Cast away this precious 
volume, and we have no guiding star by which to 
regulate our wanderings : we cannot tell what is 
right, or what is wrong, and are the slaves of igno- 
rance and vice." 

It is Saturday, the Jewish holy day. There stands 
the gorgeous temple, little less beautiful than the 
pride of Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, so silently 
erected in the days of Solomon. In the pulpit be- 
hold the venerable rabbi, his white beard resting 
upon his breast. Around him are the sons of Israel, 
and above in the gallery the daughters, assembled to 
worship the God of their fathers. From the ark he 
has taken the sacred parchment ; and, reverentially 
unrolling it, he reads a portion of the law of Moses, 
and then addresses the assembled congregation: 
" Men and brethren, children of our father Jacob, I 
beseech you, do right; then shall ye be blessed in 
your basket and in your store, in your going-out, and 
in your coming-in. Do right at all times, and the 
blessing of Jehovah out of Zion will descend and 
rest upon you." 

As the aged rabbi descends from the pulpit, we 
accost him, " You have been advising your brethren 
to do right : will you please to tell us what you mean 
by right ? " — " Certainly, my son," replies the rabbi. 
" The Almighty God, who made the heavens and the 
earth, has revealed himself to mankind by his ser- 
vant Moses, and the prophets : they have written his 
holy law ; and that law is contained in a book that 
Christians call the Old Testament (the New Testa- 
ment is but a record of fables, and unworthy of ere- 



WHAT IS KIGHT ? 185 

dence from any rational mind). To obey God's law 
as thus revealed, is to do right ; to violate it is to do 
wrong : and under heaven there is no other way by 
which a man can tell what is right or what is wrong, 
but by studjnng this word of Jehovah." 

It is Sunday, the Christian's holy day ; and from a 
hundred steeples floats the music of a thousand bells ; 
and through the streets of the city pass multitudes, 
dressed in their gayest attire, to their respective 
places of worship. There stands the grand cathedral, 
with its cloud-reaching spire. We enter, and admire 
the stateliness and beauty of this '^ God's house." 

The organ's peal sweeps tlirough the aisle 
In tones would make an angel smile ; 
Now soft, as is a fairy strain, 
Then " groaning like a god in pain." 

Slowly a head rises from behind a tasselled desk, 
and the minister reads, " He that doeth righteous- 
ness is righteous, even as he is righteous ; " and from 
this text he preaches. " Friends," he exclaims, as he 
proceeds with his discourse, " to be happy here and 
hereafter, we must obey the will of God; in other 
words, do right. He Avho does the right has God for 
his father, Jesus for his friend, and heaven for his 
home ; but to the wrong-doer there is misery in this 
world, and a fearful looking-for of fiery indignation 
in the next." 

When the congregation is dismissed, we approach 
the minister, and inquire what he means by the word 
" right," which he has so frequently used in his dis- 
course. " To do right, sir," he replies, " is to do as 
God commands us. He has revealed his will to us by 



186 ^VHAT IS EIGHT? 

his word, contained in the Old and New Testaments, 
where we find ' truth without any mixture of error.' 
To obey his will, as thus revealed, is to do right : to 
violate that will is to do wrong ; and the wrong-doer, 
unless he applies to the Friend of sinners for pardon, 
will be cast into outer darkness, where there is weep- 
ing and wailing, and gnashing of teeth." 

We have, then, already three rules of right, — the 
Mohammedan, Jewish, and Christian. " How do you 
know,'' we say to the Mohammedan, " that yours is the 
rule of right ? " — " There can be no doubt of it," he 
replies. ^' Did not the angel Gabriel appear to our 
prophet, and cause the Koran, that holy volume writ^ 
ten on a table, by the throne of God himself, to de- 
scend on his heart for a direction and good-tidings to 
the faithful ? No unassisted human being could ever 
have written such a wonderful book, every page of 
which bears the impress of a hand divine. See the 
rapid advance of our religion, which, in a few years, 
overspread the world, and now comprises so large a 
portion of its population. Besides, I know that the 
Koran is divine, and the only rule of right. Obeying 
its precepts, I have fasted and prayed, with my face 
towards Mecca, groaning under the weight of my sins, 
when the prophet (glory to his name !) has taken 
away my guilt, revealed himself to my soul, and 1 
have gone on my way rejoicing." 

To the Jew we say, " How do you know that you 
are right ? " — " Nothing can be more certain," replies 
the Jew. " God appeared to Moses, our lawgiver, on 
Mount Sinai, and amid thunders and lightnings deliv- 
ered to him our holy law, and instituted his everlast- 
ing ordinances. Through the Red Sea he brought 



WHAT IS EIGHT ? 187 

our fathers by the strength of his own right arm, fed 
theiQ with angels' food, and delivered their enemies 
into their hands. And in the day of atonement have 
I gone to our synagogue, bowed down with guilt, 
where the rabbi has interceded for us, and I have re- 
turned rejoicing in the God of my salvation ; for my 
sins, which were heavy as a mountain, he lifted off, 
and removed far from me." 

To the Christian we say, " Are you sure that yours 
is the rule of right? May you not be mistaken?" 
" Never," he replies : " it is impossible. The Bible 
is God's holy word, confirmed by miracles, prophecies, 
and a morality pure as the light of day. It is a sun 
without a spot, a fountain of eternal truth, of which 
he that drinks shall live forever. Besides, I hnow that 
it is true. Burdened with guilt, I came to the foot of 
the cross, as this book teaches; I cast my sins on my 
Saviour, and rose a new creature in Christ Jesus. I 
carry about with me, therefore, continually the evi- 
dence, — God's seal set to his own word." 

Which of these is right? Each seems to be satis- 
fied with his own side, says he knows lie is right ; 
and, of course, if one is right, the rest are wrong. 

Suppose we take up some practical questions that 
are likely to come before us in daily life, and observe 
how these various rules of right deal with them. '^ Is 
it right to drink intoxicating drinks?'' we say to the 
Mohammedan. " No, certainly not," he replies, turning 
over the leaves of the Koran, and reading to us the 
following passage : ' true believers ! surely wine 
and lots and images and divining arrows are an abom- 
ination, and of the work of Satan ; therefore avoid 
them that ye may prosper.' 



188 WHAT IS EIGHT ? 

" That is sufficient/' he says. " God, by his holy 
prophet, has forbidden wine, which includes every 
thing that intoxicates ; and no true believer can use 
it." 

" What do you think on that subject, Jew ? " — " I 
cannot learn that there is any thing wrong in the 
moderate use of intoxicating drinks, though drunken- 
ness is of course a great crime, and forbidden by oar 
holy law." 

" What is your opinion upon that subject? " we say 
to the Christian. " Wrong, sir, wrong decidedly, and 
contrary to the uniform tenor of G-od's word, from 
Genesis to Revelations, which expressly declares that 
we must touch not, taste not, handle not, the unclean 
thing." 

" That is not so," says a gentleman standing by his 
side, who overhears our conversation. " Pray, what 
are you, sir ? " — "I am a believer in the Bible : and I 
say that the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelations, 
sanctions the moderate use of intoxicating drinks ; and 
it is only their abuse that is forbidden." — "What 
shall we do in this case ? " I say. " Go to the Bible," 
replies the abstaining Christian. " To the law and to 
the testimony," says the little-drop brother : " if they 
speak not according to this rule, it is because there is 
no light in them." So to the Bible we go ; and, after 
turning over several of its pages, we at length come 
to a passage referring to the subject that we are con- 
sidering : " And Noah began to be a husbandman ; and 
he planted a vineyard ; and he drank of the wine, 
and was drunken." (Gen. ix. 20.) Within his tent 
the old man lay uncovered ; while in this condition, 
his younger son found him, and, as it appears, made 



WHAT IS RIG-HT ? 189 

sport of his father, who, learning the fact, on awat 
ing, cursed his offspring most bitterly. And some 
pious divines see in the dark faces of the negroes, 
" the servile progeny of Ham," the consequence of 
this black curse of Noah to this day. The Bible does 
not, however, inform us whether Noah did right or 
wrong in getting drunk or in drinking; and the ques- 
tion is left very much as we found it. 

We proceed, and our little-drop friend points sig- 
nificantly to the case of Lot as one having some bear- 
ing upon the question. We find, on reading, that, 
before the '^ fire-shower of ruin " descended on the 
doomed cities of the plain. Lot and his family fled 
from Sodom, his wife being turned into a statue of 
salt on the way; and he and his two daughters dwelt 
in a cave in the mountain. Having made their fa- 
ther drunk with wine, he committed incest with one of 
his daughters, and on the next evening did the same 
thing with the other. (Gen. xix. 30-38.) Yet not 
a word of condemnation is uttered, either of the man, 
or the liquor that was the means of placing him in 
such a disgraceful position : he is styled emphatically 
"just Lot," and a ^' righteous man." (2 Pet. ii. 7, 8.) 

" If," says the moderate-drinking Christian, " God 
had Dot intended man to use the article, this was just 
the very time to forbid its use, and preach your tem- 
perance doctrine. Before you reply to my remarks," 
turning to his temperance brother, '^ let me refer you 
to one express passage upon the subject, that ought 
to set the question at rest forever. It reads thus: 
* Thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy 
soul lusteth after: for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, 
or for strong drink.' (Deut. xiv. 26.) Now, if a man 



100 WHAT IS BIGHT? 

may spend his money for these articles, he certainly 
would be at liberty to drink them after so doing . it 
is absurd to think otherwise." 

" My dear sir," replies the temperance man, " you 
must never build up a doctrine on an isolated passage 
of Scripture : after that fashion, a man may prove 
any thing from the Bible. You must take the whole 
tenor of the Scriptures, from one end to the other, 
and, comparing passage with passage, thus learn what 
the will of the Lord is. Let me refer you to some 
parts of the Bible having an important bearing on 
this question. Take, for instance, the case of Sam- 
son, recorded in the 13th chapter of Judges. The 
children of Israel had been in bondage to the Phi- 
listines for forty years, and the Lord sought a de- 
liverer for them. For this purpose he needed a 
strongman, — -for God works, you know, by instru- 
ments: he desired to put the strength of a hundred 
men's arms into one man's arm, — a shepherd of might, 
that could rescue his sheep from the jaws of the 
devouring lion. Now, mark how he does this : the 
angel of the Lord — that is, the Lord's messenger — 
appears to Samson's mother, and says to her, ^ Thou 
shalt conceive and bear a son. Now, therefore, be- 
ware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong 
drink.' And to her husband he says, ' She may not 
eat of any thing that cometh of the vine ; neither let 
her drink wine nor strong drink.' Why these strin- 
gent prohibitions? Evidently that the child might 
be free from alcoholic taint, he being also a Nazarite 
from the womb to the day of his death. Thus did 
God accomplish his purposes by the strength of this 
mighty abstainer, and deliver the Israelites from the 



WHAT IS EIGHT ? 191 

hand of their oppressors. Nor is this all ; God's word 
abounds with passages condemning the use of intoxi- 
cating drinks. Let us hear what Solomon, the king 
ol wise mep, says, ^ Who hath woe ? who hath sor- 
row? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? 
who hath wounds without cause ? who hath redness of 
eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that 
go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the 
wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the 
cup, when it moveth itself aright: at the last, it 
biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.' 
(Prov. xxiii. 29.) What can be plainer than this? 
No abstainer could write a passage more strongly for- 
bidding the use of intoxicating drinks. You must 
not even look at the tempter, lest you be poisoned by 
its deadly venom.'' 

" Stop, stop ! " says the moderate drinker. " I can- 
not allow you to rattle along in that way. You must 
remember it will never do to build up a doctrine on 
an isolated passage of Scripture ; you must take the 
whole tenor of God's Word, from one end to the 
other: that's the way to arrive at truth. Solomon 
certainly never meant what you want to wrest from 
his words ; for, turn to the last chapter of Proverbs 
and read : * It is not for kings, Lemuel ! it is not 
for kings, to drink wine ; nor for princes strong drmk. 
Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, 
and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let 
him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his 
misery no more.' (Prov. xxxi. 4-7.) That is the 
doctrine. You see it is kings and princes that are 
not to look on the wine ; those are the men that are 
not to drink : but, for such men as we, there is no 



192 WHAT IS RIGHT ? 

pucli command. When our hearts are heavy, we may- 
drink, and forget our poverty, and remember our mis- 
ery no more. When you come to read the Bible 
understandingly, you will find this to be its tenor 
throughout.'^ 

" The passage that you appeal to," says his oppo- 
nent, '^ only refers to criminals condemned to die, 
who drank till they were stupid, in order to drowii 
the sense of their miseries. God's holy word is guilty 
of no such contradictions as you seem to make it. 
Allow me to refer you to the case of Daniel and the 
three Hebrew children, as one bearing out the glori- 
ous doctrine of abstinence from all intoxicating drinks. 
The children of Israel were carried off captives to 
Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, desirous of having the 
most beautiful and intelligent of them instructed in 
the language and learning of the Chaldseans, com- 
mands the master of the eunuchs to search them out. 
He does so, and Daniel and the three Hebrew chil- 
dren are chosen. The king appoints them a certain 
portion of meat from his table, and of the wine that 
he drank; but they refuse the king's wine, and eat 
not his meat : but pulse had they for food, and water 
for drink, 

* Yet they were fatter and far more fair 
Than any among their fellows there, 
And surpassed in learning and wisdom, too, 
Each proud Chaldsean and boastful Jew.* 

" See how the blessing of God followed these tem- 
perate young men ! Daniel is saved from the hungry 
h'ons ; for God shut their mouths. The Hebrew chil- 
dren walk unhurt in the fiery furnace heated seven 



WHAT IS EIGHT ? 193 

times hotter than it was wont to be; not even the 
smell of fire upon their garments. What better evi- 
dence can we have of God's blessing crowning the 
temperance cause ? " 

"Allow me to ask you a question," says the drink- 
ing Christian. " Was not Jesus Christ a greater 
person than Daniel?" — ^^Oh, certainly! he was God 
Almighty, who came down from heaven.'^ — "Very 
well, then, the example of Jesus must be as much 
more important than Daniel's as God is greater than 
man. Now, let us, look at his example (John ii. 
1-10.) There was a marriage in Canaof Galilee, and 
Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. 
The tables are spread for the feast, and tlie guests sit 
down to partake : the wine is handed round, and, be- 
fore the feast is over, it is all gone (not many of your 
kind of people there, you see). The mother of Jesus 
whispers to him, ^ They have no wine.' There were 
set there six water-pots, holding, say the commenta- 
tors, about a hundred and twenty gallons. Jesus 
says, ^ Fill them with water.' They fill them to the 
brim. ' Now bear out to the governor of the feast.' 
They do so, and the governor proclaims it good wine. 

' The conscious water saw its God, 
And, blushing, turned to generous wine.* 

Had you temperance men had his power, you would 
have turned all the wine provided for the feast to 
water ; but " he, the gracious Lord divine, turns sim- 
ple water into wine," and by so doing places the force 
of his holy example on the side of those who believe 
in using with moderation the gifts of God's bounty. 
When about to leave his disciples, they took a last 

13 



194 WHAT IS BIGHT? 

supper together ; at that supper they had bread and 
wine. Taking the cup in his hand, and offering it to 
them, he said, 'Drink ye all of it.' (Matt. xxvi. 27.) 
' And as oft as ye do it, do it in remembrance of me.' 
(1 Cor. xi. 25.) And I never take a glass of wino 
without remembering the dying Saviour. But you 
temperance men, by your doctrines, cast discredit on 
the Saviour of the world ; and, if he were here now, 
you would look down upon him with scorn and con- 
tempt : and how must he look upon you in the last 
great day ? Paul, who followe(J in the footsteps of 
his Master, when writing to Timothy, one of your 
cold-water men, says (1 Tim. v. 23), '■ Drink no longer 
water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake 
and thine often infirmities.' " 

After these two Christians have thus fought their 
way through the Bible, can any man tell on which 
side of the question the Bible stands ? Is it not on 
both sides ? It is a witness as ready to swear for 
plaintiff as defendant ; a guide pointing east and west 
at the same time, to the great astonishment of the be- 
wildered traveller. Right and wrong are alternately 
on the sides of drinking and abstaining; and a man 
who seeks for information in the Bible on this subject 
is farther off when done than when he began. And 
what is true in reference to the use of intoxicating 
drinks is equally true in reference to every other 
practical question that can come before us. 

" Is there any day holier than another ? " I say to 
the Mohammedan. " Most assuredly," he replies 
" What day is it? " — " Friday, of course : every child 
knows that." — " What makes Friday so much better 
than other days ? '' — " What a question, infidel, to 



WHAT IS EIGHT? 195 

ask I Friday is the day on which God ended his la 
bors, and rested after he had made the heavens and 
the earth. Friday is the day oil which our holy 
prophet (blessed be his name ! ) fled from Mecca to 
Medina ; it is the day set apart by the Koran as the 
sabbath, and has been observed by our Church from 
the eai'liest times : the man who labors on that day 
is accursed of God." 

I turn to the Jew. " What do you think upon that 
subject ? " — " There is no holy day," he i^eplies, " but 
Saturday. Fridays are no better than Sundays ] but 
Saturday, the seventh day, is the sabbath of the Lord 
our God, on which no manner of work may be done." 
" What makes Saturday so iQUch better than other 
days ? " — • '' Do you not know that in six days the Lord 
made heaven and earth, and rested on the seventh, 
wherefore he blessed and hallowed it? Li his law, 
delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave the com- 
mand to observe this day as a holy day forever. (Ex. 
xxxi. 13-16.) And what God commands, man must 
do." 

"What do you think about that, Christian?"— ''Well, 
sir, of keeping Fridays and Saturdays I know nothing. 
They are no better than other days of the week ; but 
Sunday is the Lord's Day : and whoever breaks the 
sabbath, by work or play, does it at the peril of his 
soul 5 for all sabbath-breakers shall have their portion 
in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone." — " But 
wherein lies the peculiar sanctity of the Sunday?" 
=' Have you not read the Bible, sir, God's holy word 
of truth ? ' B.emember the sabbath day to keep it 
holy.'" — ''Yes; but that is Saturday." — '•' No, it is 
Sunday ; for the day has been changed by the resur- 



196 WHAT IS EIGHT? 

rection of Jesus Christ from the dead, on the first 
day of the week.'' — " But, as he rested in the grave 
on Saturday, the Jewish sabbath might very well 
have been retained." — "The Church, sir, from the 
earliest times, observed the first day of the week. 
On that day the disciples met to break bread ; and, 
from those earliest times to the present, the Sunday 
has been observed as a day of rest, and a peculiarly 
holy day, by all classes of Christians everywhere. 
John, in the Revelation, evidently refers to it when 
he speaks of ' the Lord's Day.' " 

" Is thee not somewhat mistaken there ? " says an 
old gentleman with a broad-brimmed hat, who liad 
entered during our conversation. " I am a Christian, 
and a believer in that book to which thee has been 
appealing, and I find no such doctrine in it as thee 
sets forth. I find Jesus setting at nought the sab- 
bath by selecting it for the performance of his most 
notable miracles ; and, when chided by the Pharisees, 
he says, ' The sabbath was made for man, and not 
man for the sabbath. The Soa of man is Lord also of 
the sabbath day.' (Mark ii. 27.) He never com- 
manded his followers to observe holy days, but nailed 
all their ceremonial observances to his cross ; for they 
were only a shadow of good things to come. Paul 
says, ^ One man esteemeth one day above another ; 
another regardeth every day alike : let every man 
be fully persuaded in his own mind.' (Rom. xiv. 5.) 
A.nd, writing to the Colossians, in the spirit of his 
Master, he sa3^s, ' Let no man, therefore, judge you iu 
meat or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of 
the now moon, or of the sabbath, which are a shadow 
of thijigs to come ; but the body is of Christ/ (Col, 



WHAT IS EIGHT? 197 

ii. 16.) Now, when a man has his body, he never 
troubles himself to look after his shadow ; and when 
Jesus, the body, came in his light and glory, the Jew- 
ish types and shadows disappeared, lost in his re- 
splendent brightness. In writing to the Galatians, 
Paul says, ' Ye observe days and months and times : 
I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you la- 
bor in vain.' (Gal. iv. 10-11.) There are multitudes 
living now that Paul would be afraid of if he were 
here ; for they have departed from the simplicity of 
the gospel of Jesus, and are bowing to the idols that 
men have set up." So says this Quaker of the old 
school. 

If these men are to be believed, the Bible is a 
guide-board pointing in three different directions, for 
the same place, at the same time. Saturday is the 
holy day, and no other ; Sunday is the holy day, and 
must be observed ; and no day is holier than another, 
but all are alike good. What shall the traveller do 
who finds these contradictory directions ? Is this the 
road that is so plain that a wayfaring man, though a 
fool, need not err therein ? 

If we take any other practical question, we find 
the same difficulty in deciding what is right or wrong 
by any sacred book that may have been adopted 
as a standard. Should a man have more wives than 
one ? The Mohammedan replies yes, at once : his 
prophet had, and his holy book permits polygamy. 
The Jew says it was allowed by God at one time, but 
is no longer permitted. We ask the Christian ; but he 
stares with astonishment that we should ask him such 
a question. " One man and one woman united to- 
gether for life is the doctrine of the Bible, taught 



198 WHAT IS EIGHT? 

most explicitly throughout the pages of that blessed 
book ; and no Christian for a moment doubts it." 

^' You are mistaken, sir," exclaims the Mormon : 
" on the contrary, polygamy is plainly taught in the 
Scriptures, as practised in our Church at the pi'eseni 
time." — ^' How can you say so? " replies the Monoga- 
mist. " The Bible is opposed to such a doctrine 
from Genesis to Revelation. Just turn to the ac- 
count of creation as given in Genesis, and what can 
be plainer than the dual relation between the sexes 
there declared, as established by God himself? Adam 
being created, and placed in Eden's flowery garden, 
the beasts were brought to him to name ; and, as tli^y 
marched before him, from the mouse to the monkey, 
he gave them appropriate names, but sought in vain 
for a companion. God, compassionating Adam in his 
lonely condition, cast him into a deep sleep, extracted 
one of his ribs, and of this made a woman, and brought 
her unto Adam. Had polygamy been right for man, 
then was the time for it to be made manifest. God 
could just as easily have taken out two or three ribs, 
and made as many women of them, as to take one ; 
but, in his infinite wisdom and goodness, he makes, of 
one rib one woman, a companion for Adam for life. 
By what sophistries can you set aside these explicit 
revelations ? " 

" You don't understand the Bible, sir : you are 
blind to the beauty of its glorious teachings. Uoyon 
not know, sir, that, through all Nature, every thing has 
a small beginning, however mighty it may become ? 
First we have the germ peeping above the ground, 
then the sapling, and in tlie end the giant oak. First 
the spring, then the rill, the streamlet, and the river. 



WHAT IS EIGHT? 199 

This is God's method of working; and it is not sur- 
prising that the statements of the Bible, God's holy 
word, should harmonize with it. Adam had one wife 
by God's appointment: that is true, and what we 
should reasonably expect. God could not have given 
him less, and, in accordance with his natural law, we 
could not expect him to give more. But mark, as we 
advance along the line of the eminent worthies whom 
God has chosen to honor in his sacred word, how the 
stream widens and deepens. Abraham, who was ^ the 
father of the faithful, and the friend of God,' had one 
wife Sarah, and another Hagar. (Gen. xvi. 3.) And, 
when Sarah died, he took another (Keturah), so as 
to keep up his number, two. (Gen. xxv. 1.) Jacob, 
farther along the line, married two wives, his own 
first cousins, daughters of his Uncle Laban ; and then 
had children by their two handmaids, making his num- 
ber four. Gideon, a man of the Lord, by whom he 
delivered Israel, and one of Paul's cloud of witnesses, 
must have had at least ten wives ; for the Bible informs 
us that he had many wives and seventy sons. ( Judg. 
viii. 30.) Then David, the ^ man after God's own 
heart,' the man who, we are told by God him- 
self, never did wrong in his life but once (and that 
was in the matter of Uriah), takes to himself a num- 
ber of wives ; and, when Saul dies, the blessed Bible 
declares that * God gave to him the wives of his 
master Saul into his bosom.' (2 Sam., xii. 8.) Do 
not you begin to see how naturally and beautifully 
this blessed system of polygamy grows? — Adam one, 
Abraham two, Jacob four, Gideon ten, David twenty 
or thirty, and, lastly, Solomon, the wisest man that 
ever lived or ever shall live, with his scvea hundred 



200 WHAT IS EIGHT ? 

wives and three hundred concubines. In him hu« 
manity culminated ; and from that time men went 
downward and backward, till Joseph Smith, the 
prophet of the Lord, arose and brought in the glory 
of the latter day. The Bible is full of beauty when 
properly understood, but in the hands of the wilful 
and ignorant is like a sharp sword, that cuts the hand 
of him who knows not how to wield it." 

" Filthy wretches ! to pervert the word of God in 
order to pauder to jour depraved appetites," says a 
tall, pale,overcoated, broad-brimmed-hatted gentleman, 
who has been listening attentively to the discussion. 
" Who are 3^ou? " exclaim both with one breath. " I 
am a Shaker, gentlemen, and a devout believer in the 
truths of that blessed volume that you wrest to your 
own destruction : and I say that the Bible teaches, by 
example and precept, that marriage is one of the most 
prolific sources of evil ; and that, as God's children, 
we should abstain from it. Go to the garden of Eden, 
and what do you find ? A paradise of delights. Every 
thing that is pleasant to the eye and useful for food is 
there. No earthquake heaves the ground, no volcano 
opens its fiery mouth ; but the angel of peace holds 
dominion over the world. The lion and the tiger, the 
lamb and the kid, lie side by side together, and there 
is nothing to hurt or destroy. But mark the change I 
Adam, dissatisfied, desires a helpmeet ; and no sooner 
does she come than misery comes as her companion. 
When woman came, the Devil came ; and then came 
death and all our woe. The fair face of Nature be- 
came seamed with yawning chasms, earthquakes shook 
the world, and volcanoes poured out desolating floods ; 
the lion fleshed his teeth in the innocent lamb, and the 



WHAT IS EIGHT? 201 

tiger, seizing the kid, rent it in pieces; the soul 
of man. was dyed by sin as black as hell, and nothing 
but the blood of God could wash it out. Abraham 
has two wives ; but their quarrels imbitter his exist 
ence : and, for the sake of peace, he is compelled to 
turn one of them with her child out of doors into the 
wilderness. Jacob the shepherd, keeping the sheep 
of his uncle Laban, is a lovely character, dreaming of 
heaven and angels, and communing with God ; but 
with his marriage commences his misery. His wives 
quarrel; nis children are robbers and murderers, and 
even conspire against the life of their brother, till the 
old man, in the anguish of his heart, exclaims, ^ Ye 
will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the 
grave.' David's wives vex his .righteous soul, and 
Bathsheba leads him to the commission of that terri- 
ble crime that blots his whole life. His beloved son 
makes war against his father, and is slain ; David, in 
his souPs agony, exclaiming, ' Absalom ! my son, 
my son! Would God I had died for thee, Ab- 
salom, my son ! ' Even Solomon, the wisest man, is 
dragged down from the throne of his glory by his 
wives and concubines, who turned his heart from the 
Lord ; and he gives us the result of his wide expe- 
rience in the mournful words, ' A man in a thousand 
have I found, but a woman in a thousand have I not 
found.' 'Vanity of vanities ; all is vanity, and vexa- 
tion of spirit.' Come down to the New Testament ; 
and Jesus our Lord and Master, who set us an exam- 
ple that we should tread in his steps, was never mar- 
ried; and he says, (oh that mankind would read and 
understand !) ' He that looketh on a woman to lust 
after her hath committed adultery with her already in 



202 WHAT IS EIGHT? 

hiB heart,' Paul, who trod in the footsteps of his 
divine Master, was no husband to any woman, no 
father to any child, and desired others to follow him, 
as he followed Jesus. When John the revelator had 
those sublime visions in the Isle of Patmos, he saw a 
hundred and forty-four thousand around the throne of 
God, who were singing day and night unto him. 
John inquires who these favored few are, who thus 
approach the throne, and on whom God's smile rests 
continually; and the answer is, — mark it, — ^ These are 
they that were not defiled with women.' (Pev. xvi. 
4.) In other words, they were Shakers ; and we shall 
bask in the sunshine of God's glory, when filthy sin- 
ners like you will be compelled to stand afar off." 

So argue Bible believers ; and no wonder, while 
they follow such a guide, who stands at life's cross- 
roads, with as many hands as a Hindoo god: his fin- 
gers directing to every point of the compass, while he 
exclaims^ ^' That is the way to life ! " 

Does it point slavery- ward ? '^ No such thing," said 
the North, and shouted itself hoarse in repeating, " ^ Do 
unto another as ye would that another should do unto 
you.' ^ Call no man master; for one is your master, 
even Christ, and all ye are brethren.' *Woe unto 
him that useth his neighbor's service without wages, 
and giveth him not for his work.' '■ The stranger 
that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born 
among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.' " '' How 
plain ! " said the antislavery minister. '' None but 
those blinded by avarice can help seeing how God 
frowns upon the damnable traffic in the souls of human 
beings, and hew his Word is laid like an axe at the 
root of this tree of misery." 



WHAT IS EIGHT ? 203 

" The Almighty Maker of the universe," said the 
Southeru slaveholder, " is ever the same. He never 
commands in one age what he forbids in another, nor 
blesses at one time what he curses and denounces at 
other times ; and he has said in his Word, ^ Both thy 
bondmen and bondmaids which thou shalt have shall be 
of the heathen that are round about you ; of them shall 
ye buy bondmen and bondmaids, and ye shall take 
them as an inheritance for your children after you, to 
inherit them for a possession : they shall be your 
bondmen forever.' (Lev. xxv. 44-46.) None of your 
antislaverj^ and abolition in the Bible, but there we 
have God's charter, signed, sealed, and delivered ; 
our rights guaranteed by the great / Am forever. 
Abraham the friend of God, Jacob his intimate com- 
panion, and David his beloved, all held slaves ; and 
Jesus, finding the institution of slavery everj^where 
through Palestine, never said one word against its 
continuance. Paul not only recognizes slavery, but 
regulates it, when he says, ^ Servants, obey in all 
things your masters, according to the flesh ; not with 
eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of 
heart, fearing God.' Masters are to give unto their 
servants what is just and equal. No word of denun- 
ciation of the institution, nothing of abolition ; but 
the right of the master is recognized, and the duty 
of the servant prescribed." 

On this, as on all practical questions, t4ie Bible is 
double-tongued, and is therefore no true moral guide. 

What, then, shall the traveller do ? Is there no 
pole-star in the heavens, fixed immovably, while 
around the shifting lights revolve? Is man left to 
tread the wilderness in midnight darkness, with noth- 



204 WHAT IS RIGHT ? 

ing -fo dispel the gloom around his tortuous pathway 
but the flash of a meteor, or the uncertain light of tho 
ignis fatuis? There is a pole-star for the mariner, a 
highway for the traveller, with daylight to guide him, 
and men need not drive on shoals, flounder in bogs, or 
move slowly in darkness with fear and trembling. 

Th.4T is right which is for humanity's benefit ; THAT 
IS WRONG WHICH IS OPPOSED TO THE WELFARE OF THE 

HUMAN RACE. It is not presumable that we can add 
to the happiness or diminish the enjoyment of God ; 
but our deeds constantly influence ourselves and our 
fellows for good and evil. To know what actions 
are productive of good or evil, we need to use our 
judgment, aided by all the light that science can 
bestow. 

Let us try by this rule the various questions that 
have come before us. Is it right or wrong to use in- 
toxicating drinks ? The basis of all intoxicating drinks 
is alcohol : it is this in them that makes them intoxi- 
cating. E.um and brandy contain a large quantity, 
while beer and hard cider contain but little. What is 
this alcohol ? we inquire of science ; and the answer 
is, an acrid poison. Then intoxicating liquors are 
poisonous in proportion to the alcohol that they con- 
tain, and as such are at war with the healthy opera- 
tions of the human system. The man in health who 
uses them violates the law that governs his physi- 
cal organism ; and no amount of prayer or Bible read- 
ing can absolve the sinner from the consequences of 
his deeds. The headache that admonishes the mod- 
erate drinker, the diseased body that the drunkard 
carries with him continually, are much more effectual 
texts than " Thus saith the Lord,'- in Bible or in Koraii. 



WHAT IS EIGHT ? 205 

Texts are they written in an ever-living language, 
understood by men of every tongue. 

Intoxicating drinks are injurious to those who use 
them ; at war with the health of the body and strength 
of the mind ; stimulating to physical and mental ac 
tivity for a time, it is true, but using the strength of 
to-morrow to-day, and demanding for its use a fearful 
interest, that soon bankrupts the foolish borrower. 
Hence we apply our rule, and decide that it is not 
right to use intoxicating drinks. " But your rule," 
says an objector, " leads no more to unanimity of 
opinion than the Bible. Men who do not make the 
Bible their guide differ in opinion on this subject as 
much as those who do." To those who are governed 
by it, it does. Multitudes never investigate the sub- 
ject : some who do have a strong appetite for intoxi- 
cating drinks that hinders clear vision. As people 
become intelligent, opinion on this subject becomes 
more unanimous, and there is no doubt, that, event- 
ually, the use of these drinks will be abandoned. 

Is one day holier than another? The conflicting 
testimony of so-called holy books can never give a 
reasonable answer to this question ; but Nature's am- 
ple and consistent page contains a satisfactory reply. 
I work for six or eight hours daily on my farm, and 
note carefully the condition of my system on the va- 
lious days of the week. I do this for a whole year; 
and I find that labor agrees with my physical and 
mental constitution on every day of the week. Fri- 
days are no more consecrated to rest by Nature than 
Saturdays ; Sundays than Mondays. The corn I plant 
on Sunday grows as well as that planted on Monday ; 
the rains refuse not to fall upon it, nor the sun to 



206 WHAT IS EIGHT ? 

shine upon it. On every day the grass grows, the 
water flows, gayly blows the breeze, the sap climbs up 
the trees. Sunday puts no brake on the world's 
wheels ; but the sound of the rushing sphere comes 
humming into the church on Sunday, as into the 
synagogue on Saturday. Nature knows no red-letter 
days. 

The man who invented the sabbath evidently sup- 
posed the world to be flat. When the sun went down, 
it was night all over the world ; and, when he rose, day 
was everywhere. Not otherwise could all the people 
of the world observe the same portion of time. At 
six o'clock on Sunday evening, the Christian minister 
in this country gives out his text, " Remember the 
sabbath day to keep it holy," and solemnly denounces 
the violators of the holy day who do their own work, 
and obey not the divine record ; and at the very same 
time his Christian brethren in China are swinging 
their axes, driving their planes, and wielding their 
hammers, for it is Monday morning with them. If we 
would but climb the mountain, sun ourselves in the 
daylight, and let the wind blow the cobwebs out of 
our eyes, we might read this truthful Scripture, '^All 
days are thine, man : use them for thy good." No 
tyrannical monarch sits in state, watching with scowl- 
ing brow the little boys who play on Sunday, striking 
one with lightning, and drowning another. 

There is a time of rest marked by Nature, which 
none can disregard with impunity. It is when the 
sun sinks, and the curtain of night is drawn around 
the world ; when 

" The daisies have shut up their sleepy red eyes, 
And the bees and the birds are at rest." 



WHAT IS EIGHT ? 207 

Then sleep, like an angel, closes the laborer^s eyes, 
and his soul wanders off into heaven. Abstain from 
sleep to-night, and to-morrow you feel faint and lan- 
guid. Try it to-morrow night, and the pain you will 
suffer will teach you the necessity of obeying the laws 
that Nature makes. It is said that Napoleon's sol- 
diers, in the retreat from Moscow, slept on the march. 
So well does Nature provide for obedience to her 
commands, that disobedience is almost impossible. 
This is the only sabbath that Nature imposes : all 
others are of man's manufacture. 

Indiscriminate intercourse between the sexes pro- 
duces the foulest diseases, and its mental and moral 
effects are most disastrous. Polygamy debases wo- 
man, and degrades and brutalizes man. If one man 
appropriates to himself a dozen wives, he is a tyrant, 
and they his slaves. If many men were to do it. 
many of their brethren would be robbed of the hap^ 
piness that flows from congenial companionship with 
woman. Monogamy is evidently the law of Nature ; 
and when two congenial souls are truly united theirs 
is the kingdom of heaven. 

What are the effects of slavery ? Does it elevate 
mankind ? Is it a blessing to the race ? Its very 
defenders acknowledge that it is a curse. In conse- 
quence of it, comes to the white man idleness, that 
eats away his manhood like a canker-worm ; cruelty, 
that enthrones the beast in his soul ; and fear, that 
holds a dagger before his eyes continually: to the 
colored man, a prison-house for his mind, from which 
the light of knowledge is carefully excluded ; a stag- 
nation of soul that breeds pestilence and crime. It 
is accursed, let it die, says Nature ; and die it will. 



208 WHAT IS EIGHT ? 

For want of this principle by whicli to distinguish 
right from wrong, the world is most sadly cursed. 
We have artificial virtues and artificial vices without 
number. Men are trained to believe that certain ac- 
tions are right, nay, imperative, that have no tenden- 
cy to benefit the doer or his neighbors ; while they are 
trained to carefully abstain from doing what would be 
of decided benefit. 

The faculty of conscience is blind, and never en- 
ables a man to know whether actions are right or 
wrong: it only induces us to do that which the judg- 
ment has decided to be right. The Hindoo devotee 
holds his closed hand above his head in a fixed posi- 
tion till the nails grow through his hand, and the mus- 
cles of his arm become so rigid that it is impossible 
to bend it. The torture thus inflicted upon the body 
he is taught to believe is so much virtue placed to 
tae account of his soul; and bis conscience assists 
nim in bearing the pain. The Mohammedan dervise 
dances and howls by the hour, not because his dan- 
cing and howling benefit either himself or others, but 
to propitiate God, and obtain favors from him. We 
need not travel far to find instances of a somewhat 
similar kind in what we are pleased to call an '' en- 
lightened land." 

Here is a baby held in the arms of a gentleman, 
who utters some words over it, as if for a charm, and 
then sprinkles water in its face till it cries ; all parties 
looking on with the greatest seriousness. 

It is winter, and cold in the extreme. A hole has 
been cut in the ice, and in the water stands another 
gentleman, a crowd of lookers-on surrounding the 
spot, attracted by the singular spectacle. He dips 



WHAT IS EIGHT ? 209 

overhead twenty or thirty people, two-thirds of them 
women or girls ; and with stiffened clothes and chatter- 
ing teeth they make their way to some neighboring 
house. Who is benefited ? The water is no purer^ 
the people no cleaner, the gentleman no warmer, the 
world no wiser. 

A hundred people are gathered in a Christian place 
of worship. It is communion-day. The minister 
discourses about a young man who was put to death 
more than eighteen centuries ago, who, he says, was 
God. He then hands to them cups filled with wine, 
and plates containing pieces of bread, and tells them to 
eat and drink ; assuring them, as they do, that they 
are eating the flesh and* drinking the blood of this 
young man who died so long ago, though the bread 
was made by the baker, and the wine is generally 
some villanous compound concocted by the wine-mer- 
chant. 

Artificial virtues that are no virtues, that make no 
soul wiser or better, purer or happier, take the place 
of manliness, intelligence, and use. Human beings 
meet by thousands, and cry to deaf gods ; they build 
sumptuous temples, and employ men to retail to them 
ancient fables, while they sternly reject living and 
important facts. 

Artificial vices go side by side with artificial vir- 
tues. Your hired man is a Catholic. It is Friday, and 
the church says no meat shall be eaten. A round 
of beef is on the table ; Patrick has been laboring 
hard, and hunger has shortened his memory ; cut 
after cut disappears, till the thought flashes like light- 
ning into his mind, — it is Friday ! Down drop knife 
and fork, and remorse of conscience supplies the ro- 

14 



210 WHAT IS EIGHT ? 

mainder of the meal. On Sunday he is oflF to confes- 
sional. He kneels, "0 father, I have committed a 
great sin." — '' What is it, my son ? " says the priest, 
who thinks of nothing less than murder. " I ate some 
beef on Friday." The priest prescribes a light pen- 
ance, and away goes Patrick rejoicing, while he rolls 
over a large quid of tobacco, and chews with double 
force for joy. It is all right to chew tobacco ; but to 
eat meat on Friday — what a deadly sin I 

A company of Methodists have met in the base- 
ment of the church at class-meeting. The leader 
asks them one by one how it is with their souls, till 
he arrives at a poor widow, left with four young chil- 
dren and a heritage of woe. She tells with trem- 
bling voice of her many shortcomings : she does the 
things she ought not to do, and leaves undone the 
things she ought to do ; she begs an interest in their 
prayers, that she may grieve her God no more by 
wandering from him, but move steadily on to Zion 
with her face thitherward. What has this poor soul 
done? What are the sins that she has committed, 
the remembrance of which overwhelms her like a 
flood ? Fatigued with hard labor for herself and 
darlings, she slept without first praying, and thought 
of her children in the morning before she thought of 
her God. She heard a dull, prosy sermon last Sun- 
day, and went to sleep (the best possible thing she 
could do under the circumstances) ; and, bearing the 
burden of such artificial sins as these, she goes mourn- 
ing all her days. 

Thousands are made miserable by their violation 
of commands that they were never under any obliga- 
tion to obey, and, on the other hand, are ruined by 



WHAT IS EIGHT? 211 

disobeying what Nature commands, of which they are 
generally ignorant.- 

Let us study the effect of our actions upon our- 
selves and our neighbors ; and what conduces to true 
permanent happiness let us perform. Here are the 
ignorant ; let us enlighten them by all the means in 
our power. Here are our neighbors, suffering, dy- 
ing; let us assist and relieve them. Man needs our 
assistance, and all that we can give. Blessed is he 
that applies his life to this work I In this world he 
has peace and joy, and in the world to come the happi- 
ness that legitimately springs from well-doing, and that 
cannot be separated from it. 



WHO ARE CHRISTIANS? 



WHO ARE CHRISTIANS? 



If Christianity, as tauglit in our evangelical churches, 
is true, the most important question that one man can 
ask another is. Are you a Christian ? Next to this in 
importance must be the question, What constitutes 
a Christian ? 

Noah Webster says that a Cliristian is one who 
believes hi Christ, and " especially one whose inward 
and outward life is conformed to the doctrines of 
Christ." According to this, there are two classes of 
Christians, — a general class who believe, and a spe- 
cial class who believe, and whose life accords with, the 
doctrines or teachings of Jesus. To the first class 
belong, probably, three-fourths of all the people of Chris- 
tian countries, — England, France, Germany, Spain, 
Italy, indeed, of Europe generally, and the United 
States. They regard Jesus as the Messiah, the sent 
of God, the Christ, and tliink that salvation can only 
come by him. They are Christians, as Turks are 
Mohammedans. 

Christians, then, fill our prisons, almshouses, luna- 
tic-asylums, and houses of prostitution. Our thieves 
are Christian thieves, and our murderers Christian 

215 • 



216 WHO ARE CHRISTIAKSV 

murderers. How rare it is for infidels to be convicted 
of theft, or hung for murder ! On the gallows it is the 
name of Jesus the Christ that gives consolation to 
the dying criminal ; and he expects, with the repent- 
ant thief, to be with him in Paradise. The late riots 
in New York were Christian riots. Our rowdies 
swear Christian oaths ; and, when the death-angel 
appears to call them, they send for a Christian priest 
to prepare them for their departure. 

Coiistantine the Great was a Christian, — he who 
murdered his son Crispus and his nephew Licinus, and 
suffocated his wife Faustus in a bath : he may be 
regarded, indeed, as the founder of our present Chris- 
tian sabbath. Theodosius I., another Roman emperor, 
who murdered in cold blood seven thousand of the 
inhabitants of Thessalonica, without distinction of age, 
was a zealous and orthodox Christian ; and so was 
Leo III., who commanded every person in his domin- 
ions to be baptized, under pain of banishment, and 
sentenced those to death who relapsed into idolatry 
after the ceremony. 

Those men of Alexandria who murdered Hypatia 
were Christians to a man. Though she gave public 
lectures on philosophy, and proved herself to be one 
of the most noble women of her time, yet the Christian 
monks and rowdies, headed by a Christian priest, 
seized her in the street, dragged her into a Christian 
Church, stripped her naked, whipped her, cut her in 
pieces, and burned her mangled remains in the market- 
place. 

Peter the Hermit was a famous Christian : clad in 
rags, and bare-footed, he wandered up and down 



WHO ARE CHRISTIAKS? 217 

Europe, stirring up his fellow-Christians to rescue the 
Holy Land from the hands of the infidel Turks. Mil- 
lions rallied to his call. " Their track," says Draper, 
" was marked by robbery, bloodshed, and fire." When 
they captured Jerusalem, " the brains of young chil- 
dren were dashed out against the walls ; infants were 
pitched over the battlements ; every woman that could 
be seized was violated ; men were roasted at fires ; some 
ripped up to see if they had swallowed gold. The 
Jews were driven into their synagogues, and burned ; 
and nearly seventy thousand persons were massacred." 

Father Dominic, who founded the Spanish Inquisi- 
tion, was a Christian ; and so were the wretches who 
applied its tortures. Torquemada, during his tenure 
of office as inquisitor-general, burned thousands, most 
of them fellow-Christians, who differed from him on 
some unimportant trifles. In less than three hundred 
years, the Spanish and Christian Inquisition burned 
alive more than thirty thousand persons, and con- 
demned to various terms of imprisonment nearly three 
hundred thousand. 

The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, in which sixty- 
six thousand persons were murdered for daring to be 
Protestants, was performed by Christians. In Rome, 
the papal Christians fired cannon and kindled bon- 
fires, and Pope Gregory assisted at the celebration of 
a solemn mass, as a thanksgiving to God for his help 
in butchering their fellow-Christians. Indeed, to-day 
Christian Germans and Christian French are fighting ; 
and the victories are duly celebrated by thanks to the 
Christian's God in the name of Jesus, the object of 
the Christian's faith. 

19 



218 WHO AHE CHRISTIANS? 

" I deny that these were Christians," says one. 
'' Think of Christian thieves, murderers, and pros- 
titutes ! Why, the statement is its own sufficient re- 
futation." — " Who, then, are Christians ? " I inquire. 
" Those only who obey the doctrines of Christ, and 
live the life of which he set a perfect example." This 
must be the second class of Christians to whom 
Webster refers. Where are we to find the doctrines 
of Jesus ? In the New Testament, and especially in 
the Gospels, which are supposed to contain the com- 
mands that he gave in the very words in which they 
were uttered, infallibly reported by the inspired evan- 
gelists. Let us examine these, and compare them 
with the conduct of those who claim the Christian 
name, that we may discover who are the genuine 
Christians, and separate them from the miserable pre- 
tenders whom we have been considering. 

Commencing with Matthew, who gives us a report 
of a famous sermon by Jesus himself, we find one 
of his commands to be, " Swear not at all . . . let 
your communication be. Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : for 
whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil " (Matt. 
V. 34). And James, one of his disciples, who is sup- 
posed to have heard the discourse, reiterates the com- 
mand, and even strengthens it : " Above all things, 
my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither 
by the earth, neither by any other oath : but let your 
yea be yea ; and your nay nay ; lest ye fall into con- 
demnation" (James v. 12). "Above all things," — 
above lying, then, above stealing, drunkenness, and 
even murder ; and he who swears must, according to 
this, be the most guilty of all criminals. 



WHO ARE CHRISTIANS? 219 

Now, walk into one of our courts of justice. Hear 
what the judge says to a number of men who stand 
before him : " You solemnly swear, in the presence 
of Almighty God, that you will speak the truth, the 
whole truth, and nothing but the truth : so help you 
God." And the men hold up their right hands, and 
swear. Who can those men be ? Are they Moham- 
medans, or ignorant pagans ? One is a Catholic, 
another a Methodist, a third a Presbyterian, and all 
professing Christians ; and there are none out of the 
millions professing the Christian name who regard 
these commands, except a handful of Quakers and 
Moravians. Can we consider those men Christians of 
the second class, who so grossly neglect such a plain 
and positive command of Christ as this ? 

In the same sermon, Jesus said, '' Resist not evil ; 
but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, 
turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue 
thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have 
thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to 
go a mile, go with him twain " (Matt. v. 39-41). In a 
report by Luke of the same discourse, we have these 
commands in a still stronger form : " Unto him that 
smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other ; 
and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take 
thy coat also " (Luke vi. 29). Again he says, " Love 
your enemies ; do good to them which hate you." 
Tliese commands are plain ; their meaning is evident : 
but who obeys them ? Not the policeman who knocks 
down the man that strikes him, and takes him off to 
jail. Not the member of a Christian church who 
employs the policeman to resist the man whom he is 



220 WHO AEE CHRISTIANS? 

unable or unwilling to resist himself. No policeman 
can be a true Christian : his business is to resist evil ; 
and, when he ceases to do that, his work as a police- 
man is at an end. If a policeman could be a Chris- 
tian, a man who lives by stealing could be an honest 
man. Our jailers, magistrates, judges, and attorneys, 
are constantly engaged in resisting evil, and even 
boast of what they accomplish in this way. They 
seem to have agreed to treat Jesus as we treat the 
msane, saying. Yes, yes, to all he utters, but never for 
a moment intending to obey his commands. From 
the decreasing ranks of our genuine Christians we 
must then take jailers, magistrates, judges, attorneys 
and justices : they not only disobey these commands 
of Jesus, but they live by their disobedience of them, 
and are constantly engaged in encouraging others to 
disobey them. Soldiers, from the man in the ranks 
to the general, must be counted out. They may 
plunder their enemies, shoot them, stab them ; but, if 
they love them, they are spoiled for soldiers. What 
would a captain say to the man in his company who 
allowed the enemy to strike him, and never attempted 
to return the blow^ but allowed him to strike the 
second time, and still made no resistance ? A Chris- 
tian soldier would be more useless than an idiotic 
school-teacher ; and a musket is as much out of place 
in a Christian's hands as a telescope is at the eye of a 
blind man. 

But the whole frame-work of our government rests 
on the soldier. Disobey the law, and the constable 
serves a warrant on you ; resist the constable, and tlie 
general police are called out, or special constables sworn 



WHO AEE CHRISTIANS? 221 

ill ; successfully resist these, aud the State militia are 
employed ; and if they should be too feeble to over- 
come the resistance, then the soldiers employed by the 
general government become the last resort: if they 
fail, the government is gone, and the successful resist- 
ers establish theirs in its place. Since soldiers cannot 
be Christians, all government officers who hold their 
situations by the soldiers' resistance share in their 
guilt, and must be counted unworthy of the Christian 
name. 

But Christians everywhere act as if these commands 
of Jesus had never been given, or, being given, that 
they mean the very contrary of what they say. Joseph 
Smith, the Mormon prophet, was once asked what he 
thought of that passage of Scripture which says, 
" Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn 
to him the other also." — " Ah ! " said Joseph, " Jesus 
Christ was a smart man, the wisest of men : he knew 
that a man might hit you accidentally or playfully, and, 
before resisting it, he wished you to make sure that he 
was in earnest, and that he meant you, by turning to 
him the other ; but, if he hits you then, go into him 
like a thousand of brick." By the way that Christians 
generally act, one might suppose that they held a 
similar opinion with regard to its meaning. 

Again Jesus says, " When thou prayest, enter into 
thy closet ; and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray 
to thy Father which is in secret." Some Christians' 
praying is doubtless done after this fashion ; but a large 
proportion of it is done in a very different way. Chris- 
tian closets are very large in these days, and are gener- 
ally furnished with steeples. The pompous clergyman 



222 WHO ARE CHRISTIANS? 

in his sable robe, prayer-book before him, in stereotyped 
phrases offers his supplications in the presence of the 
assembled congregation. Another, before five hundred 
people, closes his eyes, lifts up his hands, and proceeds 
to inform God what he is, what he has done, and ad- 
vise him for half an hour as to what he had better do. 
Not content with setting the commandments of Jesus 
at defiance themselves, these professed Christians 
establish meetings for public prayer, where men, and 
recently women, are encouraged to set the teachings 
of Jesus at defiance ; and that is actually called a 
" Christian duty," which is in direct opposition to the 
teaching and practice of Jesus. 

What sermon did he ever commence with a prayer ? 
How many prayer-meetings did he establish or attend ? 
Had he been like our modern Christians, we should 
have had some such record as this in the New Testa- 
ment : " Now there was a prayer-meeting in Cana of 
Galilee, and Jesus and his disciples were there. Jesus 
opened the meeting by giving out one of the Psalms 
of David, and then called upon brother Simon Peter to 
pray, which he did in a voice of thunder, and with 
the unction of the Holy One : he was followed by 
brothers James and John, and all the disciples ; and 
the power of the Lord was felt in their midst, so that 
the scribes and Pharisees marvelled, and a revival broke 
out, and many hundred souls were soundly converted 
to God." The difference between this and the state- 
ments made in the Gospels respecting the methods of 
Jesus represents the difference between Christianity 
and what passes for it at the present day. Had Jesus 
been like our present Christian ministers, he would 



WHO ABE CHEISTIANS? 223 

have paid but little attention to men's bodies, he would 
have wasted but little time in curing their diseases : he 
would have established prayer-meetings, and formed 
societies from Nazareth to Jericho, and got up camp- 
meetings on the shores of Gennesaret, where he and 
his disciples would have prayed, and preached damna- 
tion to all unrepenting sinners, and salvation to all who 
should believe on a to-be-crucified Redeemer. 

In the famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also says, 
" Give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that 
would borrow of thee turn not thou away " (Matt. v. 
42). Luke's report also adds, " Of him that taketh 
away thy goods, ask them not again ; " for, he says, " if 
ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank 
have ye ? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as 
much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and 
lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall 
be great " (Luke vi. 30-34). This is also very plain : 
the disciples of Jesus are to be as widely different from 
sinners, and as easily distinguished, as sheep are from 
goats. But is this the case ? Where are the men or 
women who obey these commands, or even try to obey 
them ? It would only be necessary for the beggars to 
stand at the doors of our churches, to render themselves 
independently rich in a twelvemonth, if the professed 
Christians who worship in them were obedient to the 
commands of their Master. Where are the Christians, 
if those only are such who obey these commands ? 
Are there any among the brokers of Wall Street or 
State Street? How many can Beacon Street show, or 
even Washington or Tremont Streets? It would re- 
quire somethmg brighter than Diogenes' lantern to find 



224 WHO AEE CHRISTIANS? 

them. How do Christians lend ? I find they are not 
averse to six per cent ; nor do they often object to eight, 
even when the usury laws forbid it. Nor will they lend 
then without the best of security. They do not con- 
sider two per cent a month extravagant, if a man's 
necessities compel him to pay it ; and they have no 
compunctions of conscience when they foreclose a mort- 
gage, turn a man's family out, and take from them a 
five-thousand-dollar house on which they had lent but 
five hundred. A poor Christian wants to save his home 
from the clutches of some legal freebooter. Will his 
brother Christian lend him the money without interest, 
even if he has a million, and could do it as well as not? 
So seldom is it done, that such cases are almost un- 
known. 

Had these commands of Jesus been the very oppo- 
site of what they are, the conduct of professing Chris- 
tians would be almost in exact harmony with them. 
" Give nothing to him that asketh of thee, and from him 
that would borrow of thee turn thou away." " If any 
man take away thy goods, place him where there will 
be no opportunity to do it again." " Lend only to 
those of whom ye hope to receive, and where princi- 
pal and interest are secured, then your reward shall 
be great." Read the passages thus, and I will find 
you obedient disciples in every church of the land. 

I read also in this mountain sermon, " Lay not up 
for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and 
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through 
and steal." How many Christians obey this com- 
mand ? Few besides those who are so poor that they 
have nothing to lay up. If those only are Ciiristians 



WHO ARE CHRISTIANS? 225 

who obey the teachings of Jesus, all depositors in 
banks must be counted out, all holders of stocks 
and bonds. No free-mason can be a Christian, no 
odd-fellow, or son of temperance. All these have laid 
up for themselves treasures on earth, and have thereby 
forfeited all right to the treasures of heaven. 

''But Jesus never meant what you suppose.'*^ Who 
informed thee that Jesus did not mean what he said ? 
Dost thou know better how to embody his meaning in 
words than He whom thou believest to be Lord of all 
the earth ? It is passing strange, if he did not mean 
what he said, that he did not say what he meant. 

''But to obey such commands tvould make all Chris- 
tians poor^ Certainly; and this is just what is 
needed : Jesus evidently intended his disciples to be 
poor, and very poor. Nothing shows more clearly 
how the Christian standard has been lowered than the 
fact that rich men frequently claim to be Christians. 
The very first sentence that Jesus uttered in his Ser- 
mon on the Mount, according to Luke, was, " Blessed 
be ye poor ; for yours is the kingdom of God." 
" Wha ! " I hear some poverty-stricken wretch say, 
" is there any such passage as that in the Bible ? Did 
the dear Jesus say that we the poor are blessed, and that 
ours is the kingdom of God ? " I don't wonder 
that you ask the question. It is one of those passages 
that no minister chooses for a text, and that one never 
hears quoted from the pulpit ; but here it is (Luke vi. 
20) : " Blessed be ye poor," — p-o-o-r, poor. More 
than that, he says, "Woe unto you that are rich, for 
ye have received your consolation " (Luke vi. 24). 
He declares that " it is easier for a camel to go 

15 



226 WHO AEE CHRISTIANS? 

through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to 
enter into the kingdom of God." Either the needle 
must be larger than needle ever was, or the camel 
smaller than camel ever can be ; or no rich man can 
be a Christian, if this statement of Jesus is correct. 
Of course. Christians must be poor; and Jesus, in 
insisting upon poverty, did the greatest service to man- 
kind, if his fearful statements are true. I am here 
this afternoon to preach — what has never before been 
heard in Boston — the genuine gospel of Jesus ; not 
the emasculated gospel of the fashionable churches, 
but that of the homeless, bedless wanderer of Naza- 
reth. You never heard it before, and never would 
hear it in any ecclesiastical edifice ; for they are built 
by the very men whom that gospel declares woe 
against, and for whom the fire of its hell is prepared. 
Read the parable of the rich man and Lazarus 
(Luke xvi. 19) : ^' There was a certain rich man, 
which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared 
sumptuously every day." No intimation that he was 
either a drunkard, or licentious, dishonest, or even 
niggardly ; but he was rich. And there was a beggar 
laid at his gate, so poor that he desired to be fed with 
the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. No 
intimation that he was conscientious, truthful, or even 
pious ; but he was poor, — one of those whose is the 
kingdom of God. The beggar died, and was carried 
by angels into Abraham's bosom : the rich man also 
died, and was buried ; but in hell he lifted up his 
eyes, being in torment ; nor could all his entreaties 
procure a drop of water to cool his parched tongue 
while tormented in the scorching flame. Here is the 



WHO AEE CHRISTIANS? 227 

woe denounced upon the rich, here the terrible fate 
that awaits them. No wonder that James said, *' Go 
to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries 
that shall come upon you." When the rich man in 
the parable asks Abraham that Lazarus may dip the 
tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue, the 
answer of Abraham is, " Son, remember that thou in 
thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise 
Lazarus evil things ; but now he is comforted, and 
thou art tormented." The hungry are to rejoice, for 
by and by they will be fed ; the mourners, for they 
will be comforted ; and the miserably poor, for the 
joys of heaven await them. But this hell-tortured 
sinner, who might not have the slightest mitigation of 
his penalty, was guilty of the crime of being rich : he 
had had his good things, and now it is turn about ; and 
in his fate all rich men may see the doom that awaits 
them : the smoke of their torment must ascend for- 
ever. Nor is it a donation of a hundred dollars to 
foreign missions that will save you, or two hundred to 
the Rev. Theophilus Hardshell's salary : your only 
chance for salvation is to become poor. 

A young man comes running to Jesus : he is evi- 
dently in earnest, and says, '^ Good Master, what good 
thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life ? " Sup- 
pose the answer of Jesus had never been recorded, 
and the professing Christians of the various sects had 
been left to fill in the answer, each according to his 
notion. " I have no doubt," says one, " that he told 
him there was nothing to do but to exercise sav- 
ing faith in him as the Messiah." " He must have 
commanded him," says another, " to pray at least 



228 WHO AKE CHRISTIANS? 

three times a day, to attend divine service every sab- 
bath, and live a Christian life." " I can tell you just 
what he told the young man," a third would have 
confidentially exclaimed ; " and that is, simply to 
believe in him as the Christ, and be immersed in his 
name." Yery fortunately, the answer of Jesus has 
been recorded ; and it is such a one as no member 
of the three hundred Christian sects would ever have 
supposed. He first tells him that he must keep the 
commandments ; but this the young man declares he 
has done from his youth up: and then he asks the 
all-important question, "What lack I yet?" Now 
we sliall have the very essence of Christianity : keep- 
ing the commandments was Jewish, and men had 
practised it for centuries before Jesus came. If Chris- 
tianity is true, from the lips of the Master of life is 
about to fall the words that contain the key to bliss 
eternal. " Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, 
and come and follow me." Imagine how chop-fallen 
the young man looked ! How many young men who 
compose our Christian associations would have looked 
otherwise ? Only those that had nothing to sell. 
" He went away sorrowful ; for he had great posses- 
sions." Had Jesus tried the solid men of Boston, how 
many would have obeyed him ? Not a soul. The 
difference between them and the young man would 
have been, that they would have gone away angry 
instead of sorrowful. If the Christian missionaries 
of to-day preached such a gospel as Jesus did, their 
disciples would be as few. 

" But Christianity does not require that a man should 
strip himself in that way.'''' The sham Christianity 



WHO AEE CHRISTIANS? 229 

of the churches does not ; but the Christianity of Jesus 
does. His commands are, " Sell that ye have, and 
give alms " (Luke xii. 33). " Take no thought for 
your life, what ye shall eat, nor yet for your body, 
what ye shall put on." " Take no thought for the 
morrow" (Matt. vi. 25, 34). Jesus and his disci- 
ples wandered about Galilee, sleeping on the ground 
or in a fishing-boat, knowing not to-day how to-mor- 
row's dinner would be obtained. Jesus appears to 
have been as regardless of to-morrow as the birds, 
whose practice he recommends. The members of the 
earliest Christian Church appear to have understood 
the commands of Jesus literally, and they acted accord- 
ingly. They sold their possessions, and laid the 
money at the apostles' feet ; and distribution was 
made to every one according to his need (Acts ii. 
45). 

Let men obey the teachings of Jesus, and how long 
would they be rich, or have possessions ? Let the 
strongest bank in Boston put out a sign, " Here we 
lend, hoping for nothing in return ; we give to all who 
ask of us, and of those who take our goods we ask 
them not again." Though the parties were rich as 
the Rothschilds in the morning, and as sure of hell as 
Dives, they would be stripped as bare as Lazarus 
before night, and be just as certain of a place in Abra- 
ham's capacious bosom. 

Where is the church that demands of its members 
obedience to these vital Christian duties ? Jesus 
says, " Believe in me." They do it, and are not at all 
backward in saying so. Christianity is now a fash- 
ionable religion ; and nothing can be easier than to be 



230 WHO ARE CHRISTIANS? 

a floating chip on the current of public opinion. 
Jesus says, " When ye pray, say. Our Father : " and 
this how ready all are to perform, from the Unitarians 
to the ranters, from the prattling babe to the gray- 
haired sinner of ninety ; and ask for their daily bread 
as if the breakfast-loaf depended on their morning 
petition. This also costs nothing. Jesus says, hand- 
ing the wine-cup to his disciples, " Do this, as oft as ye 
do it, in remembrance of me ; " and, although there is 
no positive command, they are eager to attend to the 
slightest hint of their Master, and down goes the poi- 
sonous alcoholic compound as the mystical blood 
of Jesus. He also says, " He that believe th, and is 
baptized, shall be saved." " Then we must be bap- 
tized," say the Baptists. " Yes, our little ones," say 
the pedo-Baptists ; and up come the little children in 
the arms of their parents, and are sprinkled in the 
name of the triune Jehovah ; and down go the chil- 
dren of a larger growth in the arms of the priest, to be 
dipped in the same name. This also costs next to 
nothing, and is often a passport into what is called 
good society. But when Jesus says, " Lend, hoping 
for nothing again," " Give to him that asketh of thee," 
*' Sell that ye have, and give alms," all are stone- 
deaf; or, if they hear, they are quite sure that he does 
not mean what he says. Jesus may beckon for them 
to tread the path that he has trod ; but they are all 
blind. Tliis costs something; this strips them and 
tries them; this tests their faith. Jesus is reported 
as saying, " When the Son of man cometh, shall he 
find faith on the earth ? " and I think, if he should 
come now, he would find the pretending members 



WHO AEE CHEISTIANS? 231 

of his clmrcli to be infidels to a man : there is no faith 
in Jesus in the land. Let millionnaires distribute what 
they have robbed from the poor, when they take the 
Christian name ; let them sell their mansions to-day, 
and distribute to the necessitous, and know not where 
they shall lay their heads to-morrow ; let those Chris- 
tian ministers who denounce all who do not accept 
their standard of Christianity set the example by 
reducing themselves to abject poverty, and then we 
shall have evidence of their sincerity at least. 

Who are genuine Christians ? They cannot be those 
lords over God's heritage, who pocket from five to fif- 
teen thousand dollars a year for preaching a gospel 
scarcely an item of which Jesus could recognize. They 
cannot be among those sleek church-goers who pay 
from a hundred to a thousand dollars a year for the 
privilege of sitting in a cushioned pew, and listening 
to Rev. Silver-Tongue as he proves how easy it is for a 
camel to go through a needle's eye. Boston, among its 
regiment of preachers, cannot find a single man ; and 
the New- York and Brooklyn pounders, expounders, and 
ten-pounders, are not a whit more Christian than their 
Boston brethren. If the Christians only are sheep, they 
are left-hand goats, to a man ; and the Judge's fatal 
" Depart ! " must ring through their guilty souls in 
" the last great day." Nor are the members of our so- 
called Christian churches in a much more hopeful con- 
dition. Not only is it impossible to find a man who 
obeys the commands of Jesus, we cannot even find 
one who tries to obey them ; and, if we did, his Chris- 
tian brethren would be among the first to conclude that 
he had taken leave of his senses. 



232 WHO AKE CHEISTIANSV 

If any of you still think that you are Ciiristians, and 
that, on account of this, Jesus will save you from the 
curses pronounced on the disobedient, let me refer you 
to the sixteenth chapter of Mark. I read, " He that 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that 
believeth not shall be damned." Now comes the ques- 
tion of questions: Are you a believer? for, if you are 
not, damnation is yours. Jesus himself gives the test 
by which you may decide : '' These signs shall follow 
them that believe : in my name shall they cast out 
devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; they shall 
take up serpents ; and, if they drink any deadly thing, 
it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the 
sick, and they shall recover." Can you cast out devils 
in the name of Jesus ? Can you speak with new 
tongues ? It may be difficult to tell when the devils 
are in, and perhaps still more to tell when they are 
out ; it may be impossible for us to tell whether any 
peculiar speech that you may utter is a veritable lan- 
guage or not : but can you handle serpents with im- 
punity, say rattlesnakes, vipers, or copperheads ? Can 
you drink any deadly thing without injury ? — a dose 
of arsenic, for instance, a few grains of corrosive subli- 
mate, or half a pint of sulphuric-acid ? Can a man be 
found among the millions professing the Christian 
name that would submit to the test, to say nothing 
about being unharmed afterward ? Or can you lay 
your hands on the sick, and they recover ? I hear of 
Spiritualists doing this at times ; but where are the 
Christians that can do it ? And yet it is evident, if 
Jesus states what is true, that those who cannot do 
these things will be damned. Out of the way, you 



WHO AEE CHEISTIANS? 233 

shams! — you Roman Catholic, with your seven sacra- 
ments, your holy water, your Latin gabble, your fantastic 
dresses ! Away with you, monks, priests, cardinals, and 
infatuated popes, and take your Pater-Nosters and Ave- 
Mai'ias^ your litanies and your solemn masses, with 
you ! What are they good for ? The whole pile of 
your mummery never made a single Christian, and 
cannot save from damnation one guilty soul. You 
need not come. Episcopalian, to take his place. What 
better is your prayer-book than his mass-book ? Are 
your two sacraments any more efficacious than his 
seven? your damnatory creed any more soul-saving 
than his ? You can make Episcopalians by the mil- 
lion ; but there is not a Christian among them ; and, 
if Jesus speaks what is true, they will every one be 
damned with the common herd. Here come the Pres- 
byterians. '' We are the Christians, orthodox, evan- 
gelical. We have thrown overboard unscriptural 
Popery, unchristian Episcopalianism ; and we are the 
true followers of the Saviour." You, with your cloud- 
cleaving spires, your velvet-cushioned pews and your 
tasselled pulpits, your ten-thousand-dollar ministers and 
millionnaire members, — you Christians ? Then» are 
misers generous, drunkards temperate, and Hottentots 
the most beautiful of mankind. You need not crowd 
in, Methodist, Baptist, Quaker, Shaker, Unitarian, Uni- 
versalist, and Adventist, — shams, every one. Jesus can 
only say to you all, " Depart from me : I never knew 
you ! " You have built on the sand, and your structure 
must fall when the wrath of God is revealed on those 
who obey not the gospel of his Son, 



234 WHO AHE CHRISTIANS? 

If none are to be saved but Christians, where, my 
professing brother, will you appear ? 

I can see the last great day, " the day for which all 
other days were made." Down from heaven descends 
the Master, surrounded with the shining host ; and at 
the sound of that trumpet whose call the very dead 
hear, up come earth's buried hosts. I behold all the 
Christians sects, marshalled by their leaders and under 
their respective banners, come before the throne of 
Him whose name had been their boast. The Roman 
Catholics, a myriad-membered throng, approach ; and 
a venerable prelate stands as their mouthpiece before 
the " dread tribunal." " On what grounds do ye claim 
the Christian name, and a place in my kingdom ? " 
said the once meek Nazarene, but now the lion of the 
tribe of Judah, with flaming vengeance in his eye and a 
dagger in every word. " Thou gavest to Peter the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven ; and we have faithfully 
obeyed his successors, and proclaimed their decisions 
infallible. We have styled the holy Mary, thy mother. 
Mother of God, and given to her all but divine homage. 
We have built the most magnificent cathedrals, and 
drained from the poor more money for thy cause than 
any other people on earth. We have persecuted to 
death, wherever we have had the power, all who would 
not bow down to thy name, as our church directed : 
we burnt them at the stake, racked them on the wheel, 
hung them on the gibbet, and tortured them in all 
ways that our ingenuity could devise, to drive their 
heresies from them, and save precious souls. Surely 
we are thy people, and shall be allowed to enter into 
thy kingdom, and sit down with thee." 



WHO AEB CHEISTIANS? 235 

"Did you not know," and his voice sounded like 
thunder, " that Peter was he to whom I said, * Get thee 
behind me, Satan ! ' and that he denied me with oaths 
and curses ? What authority had you from me to call 
his pretended successors infallible ? When I was on 
earth, my disciples wished to call down fire from heaven 
on those who rejected me ; but I replied, as you know, 
' The Son of man came not to destroy men's lives, but 
to save them.' Was it for you, then, in my name, to 
torture and burn men because they would not submit 
to a tyrannical church, — the most infernal that was 
ever established among men ? My mother did no more 
than any other woman might have done in her place, 
and was no more divine than the mothers of my poor, 
whom you robbed to build your pompous piles, and feed 
your pampered church. Traitors to humanity, lovers 
of darkness, torturers of the conscientious, plunderers 
of the poor, depart from me ! " Then the banners 
drooped, the proud prelates hung their heads, and the 
duped multitude blushed for shame as they moved on, 
and made room for the Presbyterians, who came boldly, 
in no degree disconcerted by the fate of the Romanists 
that had preceded them. " We are Christians," said 
they, " and we claim the kingdom which is ours by 
faith." — " What have ye done to deserve it ? " said He 
on the throne. They answered, " We rescued thy 
Church and thy Word from the hands of the polluted 
wretches that preceded us, and uplifted thy banner, 
that had been trampled in the dust, and made it sacred 
in the eyes of the respectable in all Christian lands. 
We built the best of churches, paid millions for home 
and foreign missions, and made thy name to be honored 



236 WHO ARE CHRISTIANS'? 

by the rich and influential everywhere. We erected 
colleges for training young men to preach thy Word ; 
and our doctors of divinity were renowned throughout 
the civilized world." 

" Is this what I commanded you to do ? " and his eye 
blazed like lightning ; and a shudder ran through the 
multitude, so that they trembled, as he spoke, like a 
leaf on an aspen-tree. " You rescued my Church and 
my Bible ? You never did either. My Church exists 
alone in the hearts of those who obey my instructions ; 
and from whom did my Word need to be rescued more 
than from you who denied its meaning, and by every 
deed of your lives set at nought its requirements ? 
You made my name honored by misrepresenting my 
character, and belying my gospel ; and in my kingdom 
there is no place for such as you." And I saw the sad, 
solemn multitude depart like a funeral procession, to 
make room for the next claimants of the Christian's 
reward. 

Confidently came a greater host, a host no man might 
number : a million columns filed before the throne, and 
they looked as if they might, in case of refusal, take 
heaven itself by storm. They were the Methodists. 
" We are thine," said they, " the children of the King ; 
and we come to thee for our crown and our kingdom." 
— " Why should I give crowns to you ? What proofs 
can you present of your relationship to me ? " said the 
Judge. " Like thee we went among the poor and the 
lowly, we formed prayer-meetings, established class- 
meetings, got up revivals, and swept millions into thy 
Church and thy fold. We, too, have built churches in 
thy name ; in thy name have founded colleges, and sent 



WHO AEE CHRISTIANS? 237 

out preachers to the remotest bounds of the earth." — 
" I know you," said the Judge ; and, as he said it, I 
saw darkness upon their faces like the shadow of a 
cloud on a mountain-side. " You went among the 
poor and lowly : ye did well ; but did you go to dis- 
tribute all that you had ? Did you give to those who 
asked you ? Did you lend, hoping for nothing ? Did 
you denounce the tyrant lordlings who held my people 
in bondage, and wrung from them the fruits of their 
labor to pamper their pride ? Who told you to form 
prayer-meetings and class-meetings ? Who commanded 
you to get up revivals, build churches, and send preach- 
ers to declare a gospel which they preached, instead of 
my gospel, scarcely a word of which they ever uttered ? 
My crowns are not for such as you, and my heaven 
cannot reward pretenders, or their dupes." And the 
weeping Methodists followed the Presbyterians and the 
Romanists, as all other Christian sects followed them ; 
for in the heaven of Jesus the Christ there was no 
place found by them. 

Where, then, shall we find the true Christians ? I 
will give you the gospel-marks by which they may be 
distinguished ; and, when you find one, you cannot be 
riiistaken. They never swear, not even in a court of 
justice ; they do not resist evil, and, if any man hits 
them on one cheek, they turn the other ; they lend, 
hoping for nothing again ; they give to all who ask of 
them ; they sell what they have, and give alms ; they 
take no thought for the morrow ; they take no thought 
about what they shall eat, drink, or wear; they wash 
one another's feet. When they make a feast, they do 
not invite their friends nor their acquaintances nor 



238 WHO ARE CHRISTIANS? 

their rich neighbors, but the poor, the halt, and the 
blind. They love their enemies ; but they hate their 
fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, husbands or wives, 
their children, and their own lives : for all these Jesus 
commanded. Should there be any doubt still remain- 
ing, you will know them by this : they can cast out 
devils, speak with new tongues, handle serpents, drink 
deadly poison with impunity, and heal the sick by lay- 
ing their hands upon them. " But there are no such 
people," I think I hear you say. Certainly not ; and 
hence there are no Christians in your sense, — none 
who obey the commands of Jesus ; and indeed Jesus 
himself was no Christian, if this alone constitutes one. 
Like all other men, his ideal was different from his 
actual life. He says, " Whosoever calleth his brother 
a fool is in danger of hell-fire ; " yet he repeatedly calls 
the Pharisees " fools and blind." He says, " Resist not 
evil," yet with a scourge drives the traffickers out of 
the temple, and overturns the tables of the money- 
changers. He tells men to be perfect, as their Father 
in heaven is perfect ; and yet says there is but One 
good, that is God. He says, " Take no thought for the 
morrow." Hear him in the Garden of Gethsemane, 
as he prays, " my Father, if it it be possible, let this 
cup pass from me." What cup ? The cup of sorrow 
that he was to drink on the morrow. If none get to 
heaven but those who obey the commandments of 
Jesus, then Jesus himself will be absent : he too will 
be cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping, 
wailing, and teeth-gnashing. If Jesus was not a gen- 
uine Christian, what chance has any one else to be ? 
I do not, of course, blame any one for failing to be a 



WHO AEE CHEISTIANS? 239 

Christian. It is not in the power of humanity to be ; 
and for men even to try to be would be most disastrous. 
It was this that made a eunuch of Origen, filled the 
Cliurch with idle nuns and beggarly monks, and to-day 
makes celibates of hundreds of Shakers, who, but for 
their unfortunate faith, might be exemplary parents, 
and leave the world better than they found it. It has 
made multitudes fools for Christ's sake, who might 
have been intelligent and happy men and women. Let 
those who desire to become Christians give to those 
who ask of them, and lend, hoping for nothing again, 
and the list of paupers would soon be largely increased, 
and the idle and the industrious would be equally 
cursed. There is often no better way to cure a man 
of Christianity than to induce him to try to live his 
faith. These members of Christian churches, then, — 
these Christian ministers too, who " deal damnation 
round the land," — are Christians in no other sense 
than the mass of believers in Jesus outside of the 
Church ; and, if their Master is to be believed, their 
damnation is as certain as that of those they denounce. 
They are Christian ministers, as our thieves are Chris- 
tian thieves ; and the churches in which they preach 
are Christian churches, as our jails are Christian jails, 
and our drink-houses. Christian grog-shops. They 
have taken just as much of the doctrine of Jesus as 
they pleased, mixed it with a set of monstrous fables 
of their own, or of other pretended Christians, from 
Paul down ; and, having baptized this as Christianity, 
they curse every one who will not bow down to the idol 
that they have set up. 

There are multitudes of well-meaning people, who 



240 WHO ARE CHRISTIANS? 

have been educated in the Christian faith, or what goes 
by that name, who are sincerely desirous to obey the 
teachings of Jesus, because they believe it to be their 
duty. Many such are made unhappy by their inability 
to live the life that their faith demands. What a satis- 
faction it must be to know that there is not the least 
necessity for any one to be a Christian ! our welfare in 
this life or the next does not in the slightest degree 
depend upon it. You can be a philosopher, as Hum- 
boldt was, and be no Christian, as he was none ; you 
may be a poet, with Shelley ; a philanthropist with 
Henry C. Wright, who had long cast off the Christian 
name and the Christian pretence ; you can be a good 
father or mother, a good citizen, a lover of man, and a 
doer of right, a practiser of temperance and every 
virtue, and yet be no Christian. And a man may be a 
thief, drunkard, murderer, adulterer, hypocrite, and 
brute, and yet be a Christian in the only sense in which 
any man can be a Christian. 

Think of the time, labor, and energy wasted in the 
attempt to make men Christians. Think of the thou- 
sands of missionaries roaming over the world, and spend- 
ing their lives in converting men from one form of 
superstition to another. Think of the millions spent 
in Massachusetts to convert men to the dogmas of 
twenty contending sects, that are no more Christian 
than the Roman Church is catholic. Instead of Bible- 
classes, where our young people are taught what the 
Bible means, and often what it does not mean, let us 
have classes of physiology, phrenology, geology, and 
astronomy ; schools for adults, in which grammar, elo- 
cution, music, and drawing will be taught, and where 



WHO ARE CHRISTIANS 241 

instruction can be obtained in the moral duties which 
grow out of our relations to each other and to nature. 
Then every member will learn something useful, not 
only for this life, but that will be capital with which to 
start in the next. Instead of Christians, let us have 
whole-souled, well-developed men and women, who will 
do right because right-doing is best for humanity. In- 
stead of Christian , ministers, let us have human minis- 
ters, — men bound by no creed, tied to no church, 
cursed by no Bible ; men who wiU simply ask, What 
does Nature teach ? and, having learned this, seek to 
impress the truth on the minds of their fellows. 



16 



CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY. 



CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY. 



We surpass the ancients in almost every department 
of literature, science, mechanics, and art. Among the 
Greeks and Romans, not more than one in a hundred 
could read and write, and among the ancient Jews still 
fewer. Charlemagne of France, the greatest of Chris- 
tian kings, about a thousand years ago, never knew 
how to write. Yery few of the French clergy knew 
how to read, and scarcely any to write ; and, in Eng- 
land, the condition of the people was no better. Now 
a man so ignorant in this country is a rarity. Where 
there was one author two thousand years ago, there 
are a hundred now ; and our schools and colleges 
contain thousands in the embryo. Then a book as 
large as Shakspeare's works could only be written by 
the unremitting labor of a year; now a dozen men 
will turn out a thousand in a day. Six hundred and 
fifty thousand " New- York Tribunes " are printed every 
week ; each containing as much matter as the New 
Testament : to write them as they did then would re- 
quire the labor of a thousand men for twelve years. 
It took a fortune in those days to buy a few manu- 
scripts ; now a peasant has a library that a Roman 
emperor would have envied. 

246 



246 CHRISTIANITT NO FINALITY; OR, 

In astronomy, we have advanced from the childish 
guesses of the Hebrews, and the only less wild conjec- 
tures of the Greeks, to the magnificent works of the 
Herschels, and the splendid and all but demonstrated 
theories of La Place. The little world made by the 
Jewish Jehovah in six days ; that had ends, and was 
flat ; that rested on pillars, and was established so that 
it could not be moved, — is gone ; and in its place we 
have the grand old earth, born of the sun in the eter- 
nity of the past, rushing through space sixty times 
faster than a ball from the mouth of a cannon. In 
place of the stars that were made on the fourth day 
after the creation of the earth, to assist in giving light 
upon it, and that occasionally fell when Jehovah shook 
the heavens, we have millions of blazing suns, some of 
them a thousand times larger than the centre of our 
system ; and, compared with them, we find our planet 
to be but a drop in an infinite ocean. We have do- 
ciphered the hieroglyphics on the rockg, in which the 
history of our planet is inscribed (a history all unknown 
to the men of the past) ; have called up from their long 
sleep the hosts of organic forms wiiich flourished during 
the geologic ages ; and wrested from Nature her deep 
secrets, hidden for so long from the most scrutinizing 
gaze. Physiology, phrenology, chemistry, sciences 
unknown to the world two tliousand years ago, are 
blessing us daily witli their beautiful and useful reve- 
lations ; and the future is big with promise of new 
sciences to be born, new realms yet to be discovered, 
explored, and appropriated. 

I am told that the Pyramids of Egypt are superior 
to all modern structures, and that they demonstrate 
how much the art of the ancients was superior to tliat 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 247 

of the moderns. But let a hundred thousand men be 
employed for thirty years, as they were to make the 
great Pyramid, with the appliances of modern mechan- 
ics and art, and they would pile up a mountain like 
Chimborazo, whose giant crest the traveller views at a 
distance of a hundred miles. For every art supposed 
to be lost, we have made a hundred: and new ones 
are starting up daily. 

We have to-day better houses, better heads, conse- 
quently better brains and better minds, better books, 
better governments, than the ancients, and why not 
a better religion ? Having advanced in every other 
direction, why not in this ? Are we to march forward 
in science with excelsior for our motto, looking upward, 
and ever climbing to the untrodden heights ; and, in 
religion, are we to be constantly looking over our 
shoulders, or groping in some mummy-pit over the 
musty records of the past, deciphering mouldy parch- 
ments, and mourning over mutilated manuscripts, as 
if God had left his word to the mercy of some spread- 
ing fungus or nibbling rat ? 



" Why should we see with dead men's eyes, 
Looking at Was from morn till night ? 
When the beauteous Now, the divine To he. 
Woo with their charms the living sight ? " 



As the race has advanced from its primitive barbar- 
ism, it has made for itself better and better religious 
forms, corresponding with its advancement. Feti- 
chism was once the best form of religion, when men 
worshipped trees, stones, beetles, snakes, and more 
disgusting objects still. 



248 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR, 

*• llien a crocodile served as a reverend lord, 
And the leeks that we eat were the gods they adored." 

The soul of man could not always thus grovel : some 
primitive Moses, Jesus, or Luther, denounced, doubt- 
less, as a heretic and infidel, scouted the snaky gods, 
and turned men's attention to the heavens. " There," 
said he, " is the beautiful sun : what more glorious 
object of worship can you have ? This makes our day ; 
its absence, gloomy night ; under its benignant reign 
spring up grasses, flowers, fruits, and all hearts are 
cheered." Listening to him, they abandoned the old 
gods, danced in circles at early morn, and chanted 
hymns of praise to the god of day. Heroes who had 
slain wild beasts, and destroyed neighboring tribes 
who were their enemies, in turn also became gods 
to be adored : their deeds were emulated by their 
worshippers ; and the exaggerated stories of their 
exploits were handed down from generation to gen- 
eration. 

Judaism at length became possible, better than 
some of its predecessors ; for it gave to its adherents 
the unseen God, " the Creator of the heavens and 
earth," in whose name a valuable moral code was in- 
culcated, and the more flagrant crimes sternly de- 
nounced. But this God, though invisible, was in human 
shape ; stern, revengeful, passionate, and, at times, 
terribly cruel. The Jews were his children beloved ; 
the Gentiles, his illegitimate offspring, whom the Jews 
were commissioned by him to destroy whenever they 
interfered with their convenience or pleasure. 

As men's minds expanded, the Jewish God, and the 
ritual founded in his name, could no longer command 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 249 

their respect. Jesus inaugurates a new era, and su- 
persedes Judaism, as the dawn does the light of the 
stars. God is the Father of the human race : the sun 
that shines on all, the rain that drops so impartially 
on all, are the fit emblems of his unbiassed love. The 
burden of superstitious rites and ceremonies, the offer- 
ing of sacrifices, the sabbaths, and the yearly .pilgrim- 
ages, are abolished. Faith in Jesus, and obedience 
to his simple doctrine, are all that the new religion 
demands. 

But is Christianity, even as Jesus taught it, a final- 
ity ? Did this Galilean mechanic exhaust the Infinite ? 
•Has Nature no deeper secrets than he revealed ? Did 
he climb higher than mortal can ever again rise ? Did 
he alone know the way of life, and are we doomed to 
walk implicitly in his footsteps, or forever go astray? 
So thought the Jqw of Moses ; so thinks the Turk of 
Mohammed, and the Mormon of Joseph Smith. 

We dream not that we have approached the Infinite 
in any other direction. Ask the best musician if he 
has exhausted the possibilities of his science and art, 
and he will tell you that we have but ascended to the 
clouds ; and the infinite heaven of harmony lies beyond, 
yet to be scaled, and yet to be enjoyed. The geologist 
knows that we have but deciphered a few torn leaves 
of a mighty volume, whose unread lore will feast ex- 
plorers for ages to come. Ask the astronomer if the 
last star in the firmament has yielded to him its secrets, 
and the heavens have no more to reveal, and he will 
tell you that he is but a babe, who has made the ac- 
quaintance of a few pebbles on the shore of the ocean, 
whose unfathomable waters spread inimitably around 
him. What would be thought of the man who should 



250 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR, 

attempt to anchor iis where our present attainments 
are in these sciences ? He would be justly regarded as 
a foe to the human race. Was Jesus greater in reli- 
gion than Newton and Herschel in astronomy, than 
Lyell in geology, or Humboldt in general science ? We 
certainly have no evidence of it. If we are to rely 
upon the New-Testament record, and we have no other, 
his deficiencies, and that of his religion, are most 
manifest. 

It is, in the first place, most sadly deficient in the 
ability to give to the sceptic any evidence of life beyond 
the grave. Judaism, it is true, was more deficient: it 
lacked even hope. Job says (Job vii. 9), "As the cloud 
is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down 
to the grave shall come up no more ; " and certainly, if 
man does go down to the grave, he comes up no more : 
but man does no such thing. And David (Ps. cxlvi. 4) : 
" His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; in 
that very day his thoughts perish." And Solomon 
(Eccl. iii. 18-22) : " I said in my heart concern- 
ing the estate of the sons of men, that God might 
manifest them, and that they might see that they them- 
selves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons 
of men befalleth the beasts ; even one thing befalleth 
them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they 
have all one breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence 
above a beast : for all is vanity. All go unto one place ; 
all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who 
knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the 
spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth ? 
Wherefore I perceive tLiat there is nothing better than 
that a man should rejoice in his own works ; for that is 
his portion : for who shall bring him to see what shall 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 251 

be after him ? " So said the grossly material Solomon, 
who drank the cup of pleasure to the dregs, and then 
called it bitter. I suppose it was in this spirit that he 
married seven hundred wives, and took three hundred 
concubines, the result of which he gives us in his 
despairing words, " All is vanity." 

Christianity, it must be acknowledged, is far in 
advance of this. By the mouth of Jesus, it exclaims, 
" In my Father's house are many mansions : I go to 
prepare a place for you, that, where I am, there ye may 
be also." Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still live, and 
Moses and Elias appear on the mountain, and talk. 
Paul says, " To be absent from the body is to be present 
with the Lord," and " If our earthly house of this tab- 
ernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a 
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
Blessed words ! — how many sinking souls they have 
buoyed when the billows had well-nigh gone over them ! 
What hosts of hearts they have gladdened, as they trod 
the dark valley, with no light but the star of Chris- 
tianity to cheer them ! Let us thankfully acknowledge 
the good of the old, though we prefer the new : the 
light of the stars is joyously accepted before the morn- 
ing breaks. 

But how little comfort the doubter obtains from 
these ! How meagre the evidence of future existence 
which the Christian can give to those who dispute it ! 
" How know you, my brother, that you will live when 
this body dies ; that there is a bridge that spans the 
broad, dark chasm of death ? " We pause for his 
reply. " Jesus died, and rose again triumphant ; and, 
because he lives, we shall live also." — "But how do 
you know that Jesus rose from the dead ? " — " We have 



252 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR, 

the testimony of those who saw him after his resurrec- 
tioii, — the disciples with whom he brake bread after 
he rose, who saw, conversed witli, and even handled 
him ; the five hundred brethren who saw him at once, 
and never doubted his triumph over death and the 
grave." — " But where do you find all this ? " — " In the 
New Testament." In vain the sceptic looks for what 
would justify such an extravagant statement. Here 
are accounts by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and 
the merest mention in the Epistle of Peter, and, 
besides this, absolutely nothing from any one pretend- 
ing to be an eye-witness of these occurrences. Let us 
examine what we possess. How much of it would 
be taken in a court of justice ? 

Mark's Gospel appears to have been transcribed from 
previous records ; and we have no evidence that the 
writer ever saw Jesus, either after his death or before. 
Even Orthodox commentators do not pretend to know 
when his Gospel was written, or what Mark wrote it. 
" Of Mark, little, certainly, is known," says Albert 
Barnes the Orthodox commentator. Again : he says, 
" He was not an apostle or companion of the Lord 
Jesus during his ministry." We cannot, therefore, 
accept his statement : it would be ruled out of court 
at once. 

Luke does not profess to have been an eye-witness 
of any of the events that he relates : he merely pro- 
fesses (Luke i. 1) to set forth, in order, a declaration of 
what was most surely believed among the Christians 
of that time ; and his statement can do but little 
more in establishing the resurrection of Jesus than 
the statement of a Christian's belief in it at this day. 

The Gospels of Matthew and John are, however, 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 253 

believed bj most Christians to have been written by 
the men whose names they bear, who saw Jesus before 
his death, and after he rose fron^ the dead,; and 
who are, in every respect, competent witnesses. This 
can never be proved ; but, for the sake of the argu- 
ment, we will grant it. 

Let Matthew be examined. '' Matthew, did you see 
Jesus of Nazareth die?" — '-I did not: when the 
multitude came with swords and staves to take Jesus, 
we all forsook him, and fled." — " What was 'done with 
his body ? " — " Joseph of Arimathea buried it in a new 
sepulchre in his garden." — " Who went to the sep- 
ulchre on the first day of the week?/' — " Mary Magda- 
lene and the other Mary" (Matt, xxviii. 1). " What 
did they see ? " — " An angel, who said, Fear not ye ; 
for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. 
He is not here ; for he is risen, as he said. Go 
quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the 
dead ; and, behold, he goetli before you into Gali- 
lee ; there shall ye see him : lo, I have told you ! " — 
" Did these women see Jesus on that occasion ? " — 
" They did : as they were going to tell the disciples, 
they saw him, held him by the feet, and worshipped 
him ; and he said, ' Go tell my brethren that they go 
into Galilee, and there they shall see me.' " — " What 
then ? " — " Then the eleven disciples went away into 
Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed 
them ; and, when they saw him, they worshipped him : 
but some doubted" (Matt, xxviii. 16, 17). 

Let us look at Matthew's testimony for a moment. 
An angel tells the two women to go quickly and tell 
the disciples of Jesus that he is risen from the dead, 
and goes before them into Galilee, and that they shall 



254 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR, 

see liim there ; and, on their seeing Jesus, he adds, 
" Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and 
there they shall see me." What was meant to be con- 
veyed by these commands ? That Jesus was on his 
way to Galilee, and that he did not intend to see them 
till he should see them there ; then that the disciples 
went at once to Galilee, and there first saw Jesus. 
Nothing else can be fairly gathered from them. 

" Now, John, let us hear your testimony. Did you 
see Jesus of Nazareth die ? " — "I did : I was standing 
near his mother, looking on at the time." 

" Who went to the sepulchre on the first day of the 
week ? " — " Mary Magdalene." — " What did she 
see ? " — " She saw no one, but found that the body of 
Jesus was gone." — " What did she do ? " — " She ran 
and told Peter and me ; and we ran to the sepulchre, and 
found it to be as she had told us ; and then we went 
home." — " What became of lier ? " — " She remained 
there weeping; and, looking into the sepulchre, she saw 
two angels who asked her why she wept ; and, after tell- 
ing them, she turned and saw Jesus, but thought he was 
the gardener, but, on his speaking, recognized him. He 
said, ' Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my 
Fatiiter ; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I 
ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my 
God and your God.' "— " What did the disciples do? " 
— " They remained in Jerusalem ; and the same day, at 
evening, all but Thomas being in an upper room for 
fear of the Jews, Jesus appeared to them and made 
fchem glad. Eight days afterwards, he appeared to 
them again in the same place ; and, Thomas being 
present, satisfied him also of his resurrection from the 
dead." 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 255 

From John, then, we learn that Jesus appeared to his 
disciples in Jerusalem on the same day that he rose 
from the dead, and satisfied all but Thomas of his res- 
urrection ; but, according to Matthew, when the eleven 
disciples saw him in Galilee, some doubted. This must, 
therefore, have been before he was seen in Jerusalem; 
for they could not have doubted in Galilee if they had 
previously been satisfied in Jerusalem. To make 
Matthew's statement and John's even appear to agree, 
the disciples must have first seen Jesus on the moun- 
tain at Galilee, and then at Jerusalem : but, to do 
this, they must, when Mary Magdalene and the other 
Mary gave them the imperative word of Jesus, have 
gone at once to Galilee, and returned to Jerusalem in 
time for the evening's appearance on the same day; 
which would involve a journey of at least a hundred and 
twenty miles, to say nothing of climbing the moun- 
tain. But those were not days of railroads, steamboats, 
nor even stage-coaches ; and we see at once, if their 
other discrepancies had not satisfied us, that these pre- 
tended eye-witnesses are deceiving us. In court, they 
would be in danger of trial for perjury. 

Although we have granted that Matthew wrote the 
gospel attributed to him, there is good reason to be- 
lieve that he never did write a word of it. Could he 
have seen Jesus, as John represents, on the very day 
that he rose from the dead, in an upper room at Jeru- 
salem, and yet have represented that Jesus was first 
seen at Galilee, at least sixty miles off, and never have 
said a word about his appearance at Jerusalem ? It is 
impossible. 

" What liave we left, then ? " — " The five hundred 
who saw Jesus at once." — " Who are they ? Where 



256 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR 

is tlieir testimony ? " — " Nowhere : Paul sa7/s that five 
hundred brethren saw him at once.'* Very different, 
indeed, from the testimony of these five hundred, no 
name even of one being given. 

We have, beside this, the testimony of Peter, who is 
supposed to have been an eye-witness ; but it amounts 
to little. All that he says is, God '^ hath begotten us 
again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ from the dead ; " and " God raised him up from 
the dead." And this is absolutely all from those pre- 
tending to have known Jesus when alive. Paul 
evidently knew nothing of him personally. If some 
of those who saw Jesus doubted, — the very disciples, 
while looking upon the face of their risen Master, — well 
may the sceptic doubt to-day, with nothing but such 
meagre and contradictory evidence before him as this. 
On what a slender thread this momentous doctrine has 
hung ! Man's strong desire for immortality has led him 
to clutch at any straw to save him from the abyss of 
nothingness in which death threatened to plunge him, 
or such testimony as this never could have been 
accepted. 

But suppose that Jesus did rise from the dead : he 
rose with his flesh, blood, and bones, — a proper physical 
man. He says, " A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as 
ye see me have." He ate broiled fish and honeycomb ; 
showing that ho was actually the same being after 
death as before. But we can never rise in this way : 
our friends have perished, if this is the only resurrec- 
tion possible. Some lie in trenches in the bloody fields 
of the South, and their decomposing remains give ver- 
dure to the palmetto tliat waves over them: some 
sank into the turbid Mississippi, with the vessels they 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 257 

bravely defended : others were lost at sea, and sharks 
became their living sepulchres ; or were burned up in 
houses and ships, and the particles of their bodies 
have been wafted over the globe on the wings of a 
thousand winds. They have become parts of other 
human bodies ; and how can these ever be recovered 
and re-animated ? It cannot be, in the nature of things. 
If we had no other evidence than this, well might we 
weep on the death of our friends, as those who have no 
hope I Christianity, then, utterly fails to give to the 
sceptic any evidence of life beyond the grave. When 
he asks for evidence on the most important question 
that the soul of man can consider, it is silent as a skel- 
eton, or chatters T3ut to reveal its imbecility. 

Spiritualism is, in this respect, almost infinitely su- 
perior. Christianity rests on faith, spiritualism on 
knowledge. The one is a historical statement, the 
other a living fact. Christianity says, " Blessed are 
they who have not seen, and yet believed ; " thus offer- 
ing ci, premium for blind faith. Spiritualism says, 
t' Come hither, ye sceptics : hear, see, feel, and know 
that your departed friends still live ; and, because they 
live, receive the assurance that ye shall live also." 

The riddle of the universe is read, the mystery of 
ages is revealed ; the question that we have been ask- 
ing with tearful eyes for long millenniums is answered 
in the affirmative, and we are men for the ages to 
come. Tell the Indian it was not all a delusion that 
his medicine-man taught liim : the Indian lives where 
the pale-face interferes not witli liis domain, and the 
hell of the Christian is unknown. There is a })aradiso 
for the Mohammedan better suited to his soul's needs 
than the one promised by Mohammed to tlic farthCuL 

17 



258 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR, 

What Socrates hoped for, Jesus taught, and Paul be- 
lieved, we know. Death is swallowed up m life, joy- 
ful life. 

Who are the witnesses? No long-dead Peter, 
Matthew, or John, but living men and women, who can 
be questioned. Not three or four, of whom some may 
have been doubters ; but unnumbered thousands, 
spread over the broad land, some of whom may be met 
and cross-questioned every day. Not merely the igno- 
rant and superstitious, like the fishermen of Galilee, 
who seem to have been prepared for any story, however 
marvellous, but sceptics like the Owens, Hare, and 
Elliotson ; such men and women as Thackeray, the 
Howitts and- Halls, Dr. Ashburner,' Lord Lyndhurst, 
Alfred R. Wallace, Epes Sargent, Prof. Gunning, 
Prof. Mapes, Drs. Hallock and Brittan, William Lloyd 
Garrison, Archbishop Whately and hosts of others, 
many of whom were convinced notwithstanding the 
strongest prejudice against it. Ministers in Orthodox 
pulpits have seen and believed, and preach now with a 
power on the subject of future life such as Chris- 
tianity never could give. Sceptics the most deter- 
mined have found their scepticism melting like snow 
before the sun of this truth. 

Intelligent witnesses indeed we have, numbering 
liundreds of thousands, whose word upon any ordinary 
sul ject would be taken at once ; and, if the fact of 
s[)iritual intercourse cannot be established, it is in vain 
to attempt to establish any very remarkable fact by 
human testimony. 

Christianitij is a miraculous religion. The earth 
and man are miraculously created ; the earth will be 
miraculously destroyed ; and man will miraculously 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 259 

die, since the constitution of man at first was sucli 
that he would not have died if God had not cursed 
him. He is to be miraculously raised from the dead 
by the miraculously begotten and resurrected Jesus. 
Future life is consequently miraculous : " It is the 
gift of God ; " and those only can live to whom it is 
given. 

All this is sadly out of joint : it fails to' harmonize 
with what we know of Nature in the past, and hence 
we may fairly presume that it does with what is to be 
in the future. Men are learning that the earth came 
to be as it is by the operation of law, and man came 
in like manner. As his life here came naturally, so 
comes his life hereafter. The spirit lives when the 
body dies, by virtue of its nature : it cannot do other- 
wise. Immortality is not the gift of a jealous Jehovah, 
who may, in a fit of anger, withhold it, and drop us into 
nonentity : we live as the sun shines, because it is its 
nature. 

It is no wonder that a religion so interwoven with 
miracle miraculously changes all persons at death, so 
as to destroy their individuality, and give future exist- 
ence not to the same individuals, but to the beings into 
whom they have been thus changed. Heaven is the 
miraculous home of the righteous few, hell the mirac- 
ulous prison for the wicked many. The good alone 
are to be admitted to heaven ; no unclean thing can 
enter it : but, since all men are partly good and partly 
bad, all who enter there must be so changed as to be 
quite different individuals. What wife would recog- 
nize her quick-tempered husband, what husband would 
know his fretful wife, when two immaculate angels 
had taken their places ? Where are the good fit for 



260 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR, 

the heaven of the New Testament ? From Abel, who 
was slain because he was more righteous than his 
brother, to Washington, the patron saint of America, 
there never was a good man, — never a man who did 
not lie, who did not at some time become angry, who 
was not envious or jealous or mean. If none but the 
good go to heaven, then it is as empty as an Orthodox 
church on week-days, and God is a king without a 
subject. Nor are there any bad men : from Cain, who 
murdered his brother, to Arnold, who tried to murder 
his country, there never was a man all bad, — one in 
whose heart pity never dwelt, from whose purse char- 
ity never drew a cent, nor pity from his eye a tear ; 
who never spoke the truth when it was possible to lie, 
nor said a kind word or did a good deed during his 
miserable life. If none but the bad are sent to hell, 
that is just as empty as heaven. 

A religion that teaches such a doctrine as this can- 
not be a finality! Science in this nineteenth century 
says to Miracle, " Away, hag of the night ! " and she 
hides her deformed countenance. We have rent the 
veil of miracle that hid from us the orderly operations 
of Nature, and everywhere we see law and its manifes- 
tations ; and, in harmony with that, we also see that 
men must be themselves, if there is to be any future 
life for them. All human beings are mixed : the 
sheep are not destitute of hair and beard, and might 
be at times mistaken for goats ; the goats are not 
without wool, and some have a striking resemblance 
to sheep. From the best man to the worst, there. is an 
infinite gradation ; and Omnipotence itself can draw no 
line between the bad to be doomed to a Christian hell, 
and the good doomed to a Christian heaven. Tlie 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 261 

natural consequences of our misdeeds, in a realm 
without miracle, cling to us, — as much a part of us 
as our memory ; and not even God can rob us of the 
fruit of our good actions, ours to enjoy while life en- 
dures. At one blow, away go the Christian's hell and 
heaven : they are foreign to the universe ; and in their 
place we have a spiritual realm for all, where the 
good-doer can rejoice in the society of the philan- 
thropic, and with them lay plans for humanity's bene- 
fit, and where the evil-doer may learn the folly of his 
ways, cease to do evil, learn to do well, and reap the 
reward of well-doing. 

The temporary nature of Christianity is plainly in- 
dicated by its indorsement of the Old Testament. Jesus 
was never able entirely to outgrow the prejudices of 
his Jewish education. " One jot or one tittle," says he, 
" shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be ful- 
filled." " The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat : 
all, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that 
observe and do." As if the doctrine of these Jewish 
law-expounders was all divine ! Jesus refers to the old 
stories of the Jewish Bible as if he believed them ; and 
he evidently did : and even takes the marvellous tale of 
Jonah for true, and refers to prophecies of himself iu 
the Old Testament which certainly have no existence. 
It is no wonder, when Swedenborg, in many respects 
a superior man to Jesus, was never able to shake off 
the biblical shackles in which his sectarian education 
had bound him. 

Christianity, therefore, indorses the Old Testament, 
and drags around this shockingly offensive corpse, that 
is a stench in the nostrils of all intelligent and unprej- 
udiced people. It takes this old bottle of Judaism, and 



262 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR, 

puts into it the new, and in some respects better, reli- 
gion of Jesus, and, in consequence, destroys its flavor, 
and renders it unfit for our acceptance. 

Following in their Master's foatsteps, the Christians 
of the present day not only indorse the Old Testament 
and its absurdities, but also the New Testament, with 
some absurdities greater than the writers of the Old 
ever dreamed of. To be wiser than the Bible is to the 
true Christian impossible: to teach that it can ever be 
superseded is blasphemy. It is his chart ; and by it he 
will be guided, though his judgment tells him that it 
is wrong a thousand times a day. 

What would be thought of the geographer who should 
found a class in geography based upon the old atlas 
of Ptolemy ; every one of the class signing a declara- 
tion that Ptolemy's atlas was constructed by God him- 
self, and contained all of geography that it was neces- 
sary for man to know ? What progress could they ever 
make ? How they would fight against every new geo- 
graphical discovery, and denounce every discoverer as 
a heretic ! What an arch infidel Columbus would have 
been regarded by such a class in his day ! Thus it was, 
in the time of Galileo, with the Bible believers. No 
sooner did he discover in the heavens what could not 
be found in the Bible, than he was cast into prison as 
a reward for his superior knowledge. To-day, such men 
as Darwin, Vogt, Huxley, and Spencer are looked upon 
with suspicion, and denounced, because they have dis- 
covered new realms that the Bible does not describe, 
and that make it evident that a great deal which the 
Bible does describe is false. They have learned that 
Nature is infinitely wider than the Bible writers ever 
dreamed, and exceedingly different from their repre- 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 263 

sentations ; and they may expect to be cursed by all 
who have sworn to be no wiser than the men of two 
thousand years ago. 

We must say to the Bible, " Henceforth you take your 
place by the side of all other books. We are not to be 
deceived by your expanded size, your embossed covers, 
nor your gilded leaves. You must be content to be 
treated as we treat Milton's ' Paradise Lost,' Shaks- 
peare's ' Plays,' and Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress.'" 
And to Jesus, " You can no longer be our master. 
We do not object to you as a brother or a teacher : as 
such we will place you with Socrates, Plato, and Con- 
fucius, — just as good men in their way as you were in 
yours. You must not come between us and Nature, 
our mother, — just as much ours as yours. The man 
who pretends to possess a monopoly of Heaven's favors, 
and, in the name of God, lords it over his fellows, is 
either self-deceived or an impostor ; and in either case 
is a very poor guide." To the Jewish Jehovah, " You 
are as truly an idol as the gods denounced in your 
name : they were the work of men's hands, and you of 
men's brains. You never made the world, or you 
could have informed us how you made it. Neither you 
nor your Son ever redeemed the world, for it is not 
redeemed ; and the deliverance that has come to it has 
come in a very different channel from, yours. You 
have long enough been a stumbling-block in the world's 
pathway : we move you to one side, that the car of 
progress may advance." 

The indorsement of the divinity of the old Jewish 
records has been the curse of Christianity from its com 
mencement. It prevented the disciples of Jesus from 
preaching it among the Samaritans and Gentiles during 



264 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY ; OR, 

the lifetime of its founder ; and, had it not been for the 
partial emancipation of Paul, it would have strangled it 
at its birth. It lias produced a continual warfare be- 
tween it and science, which will without doubt end in 
its death. It curses Unitarianism and Universalism 
to-day. They are trying to run with heavy Jewish 
shackles on their legs and this ponderous Bible on their 
])acks. Brethren, drop your Bibles ; if they cannot go 
alone, leave them behind : snap your Jewish shackles ; 
unite with all who are laboring to benefit humanity, 
taking and giving the utmost freedom : then failure will 
be as impossible as success is now. 

With the indorsement of the Old Testament comes 
the acceptance by Christianity of the Jewish Divinity ; 
and I know of no worse feature of it than this. Origi- 
nally the idol of a petty tribe of sheep and cattle 
breeders of Judea, Jehovah became the God of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants. As they 
extended their domain by force of arms, so extended 
the kingdom of their Divinity, and his name became 
a terror to the nations round about ; while the Jews 
credited him with all that their superior knowledge, 
craft, and cruelty enabled them to accomplish. The 
common sentiment of the Jewish nation at an early 
period is well exemplified in a song attributed to Moses, 
and which occurs in the fifteenth chapter of Exodus : 
" He is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation ; 
my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a 
man of war: the Lord is his name." In accordance 
with this, they called him " the Lord of hosts," or, in 
other wordsj^he Lord of armies, and the " Lord mighty 
in battle." A similar sentiment was shared in by the 
nations round about them, who had each divinities 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 265 

that they worshipped and prayed to, and to whom 
all their victories were ascribed. 

What has the soul of the universe to do with this 
petty, jealous, vacillating, malignant, cruel idol of the 
Jews ? The spirit that shines in the sun ; that throbs 
in the heart of the distant nebula to form solar sys- 
tems, as it does in that of the unborn child to form 
the man ; that, out of the fiery hell of the world prime- 
val, has developed plant, fish, reptile, brute, and man, 
and is urging the world on in that grand career of 
progress whose magnificent future may be estimated 
by its mighty past, — what relation is the sacrifice- 
loving, roasted-oxen-smelling deity of the Jews to 
this spirit? No more than Jupiter or Juno. 

Jehovah is a being who cursed the earth and the 
entire race because the first pair fell, when he knew 
beforehand that they had not the ability to stand ; 
he found the world of one language and of one speech, 
and, in a fit of jealousy lest they should build a tower 
to heaven and invade his domain, cursed them with a 
thousand different tongues, so that they could not un- 
derstand each other's speech ; he tempted Abraliam to 
murder his own son, and, when he showed his readiness 
to commit the infamous crime, he blessed him, and 
represents him as the best man upon earth, because 
he was most willing to do the worst deed. He is a 
God that transmuted a woman into a pillar of salt, 
because she looked back upon her burning home, and 
lingeringly left her friends to perish ; who hardened 
Pharoah's heart so that he should not let the people 
of Israel go, and then slew millions of innocent 
Egyptians because he was so hard-hearted that he 
would not let them go ; he gave to the Jews the grand 



266 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR 

charter of death, — no Camanche chief's war-speech 
was ever worse, — " Thou shalt save alive nothing that 
breatheth." He has sent all mankind into the world 
with a strong disposition to do evil ; he allows the 
Devil and his agents to tempt men, and thus make 
them worse than they are naturally, and tlien has so 
arranged matters, that, if they persist in doing what 
he calls evil, he will plunge them into a den of woe, 
from which there is no escape, but from which the 
smoke of their torment is to ascend for ever and 
ever. And we are told that it is our duty to love this 
monster that the Jew made and the Christian has 
remodelled. Tell the captive pining in his dungeon 
to love the tyrant that placed him there ; tell the 
slave to love the master who has robbed him of his 
rights since he began to brea,the, and whose back is yet 
bloody from the blows of his lash ; tell the mother to 
love the fiend who has slain her darling, and now 
gloats over her agony. As impossible is it for us to 
love this Devil-creator, this plaguer .of the human 
race, this framer and jailer of hell, and tormentor 
of the damned. Reason will not, cannot, call him 
father ; Love shrinks with terror from his presence ; 
and Justice says, '' Let him die, for he is unworthy to 
live." The gods of silver and gold, of iron and brass, 
will perish ; the gods of wood and stone shall be no 
more, and their worshippers shall be ashamed of tli^ir 
folly : and so shall this grim, blood-besprinkled, eter- 
nally hating and torturing Jehovah die, and a mil- 
lion ransomed souls join in swelling to heaven his 
funeral-hymn. 

The traiasient character of the Christian religion is 
clearly manifested by its intolerance. Jesus said, '' Lie 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 267 

that believeth and is baptized shall be saved : he that 
believe til not shall be damned ; " and, so saying, he 
opened the doors of persecution as wide as the Chris- 
tian faith. He sowed the seed that fruited in creeds 
and curses, prisons, chains, blazing fagots, and all the 
horrors of the Inquisition ; lie created hell, and placed 
it in the hands of priests to curse the world for ages. 
'' If men are to be damned for a wrong faith," says the 
Conscientious Christian, '' we mast do our best to pro- 
vide them with a right faith, and to prevent the spread 
of what may damn them ; and, since persecution will 
do this, we must persecute. Better by far to burn one 
man here, than that a thousand should burn hereafter." 
Calvin, who burnt Servetus, acted most conscientious- 
ly, I have no doubt ; for his course was in perfect har- 
mony with his faith. If the apostles had possessed the 
power, they would, doubtless, have exercised it in a sim- 
ilar manner. Hear Panl : " If any man love not the 
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha.''^ 
Behind that lie thumb-screw, rack, and gibbet. Again : 
" If any man preach any other gospel unto you than 
tfiat ye have received, let him be accursed." In other 
words, " Damn every man that preaches not our gos- 
pel ; " which is a literal translation of his curse. Even 
the gentle John, the preacher of love, says, " If there 
come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive 
htm not into your house, neither bid him God speed." 
And the next step is easily taken, and legitimately fol- 
lows : " Take him into your prison, and thus prevent the 
dissemination of his ' damnable lieresies,' " — a New- 
Testament phrase, born of intolerance. As Christian- 
ity denounces the most fearful penalties for unbelief, 
so has it been the most persecuting and intolerant of all 



268 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR, 

religions ; and those among Christians who are farthest 
from this, as the Unitarians and Universalists, are 
farthest from primitive, genuine Christianity. 

As soon as Christianity became strong enough to 
wield tlie sword, in harmony with its faith, it com- 
menced a crusade against philosophy, and established 
a reign of terror over all who dared to think otherwise 
than as the church directed. Draper says of the Chris- 
tian Church in the reign of Constantine, " They de-» 
nounced as magic, or the sinful pursuit of vain trifling, 
all the learning that stood in the way. It was intended 
to cut off every philosopher. Every manuscript that 
could be seized was forthwith burned. Throughout 
the East, men, in terror, destroyed their libraries, for 
fear that some unfortunate sentence contained in any 
of the books should involve them and their families in 
destruction. The universal opinion was, that it was 
right to compel men to believe what the majority of 
society had now accepted as the truth ; and, if they 
refused, it was right to punish them. No one tvas 
heard in the dominating party to raise his voice in be- 
half of intellectual liberty." Certainly not : this would 
be to tolerate another gospel, and open the door to all 
heresy, which might be the cause of eternal misery to 
millions. The belief that our future destiny is to be 
decided by our faith, so strenuously insisted upon by 
Christianit}^ has made Christians the most relentless 
persecutors the world has known. Tiie pagan Romans, 
who never supposed that a false faith would damn men, 
were tolerant of all religions that did not interfere 
with the State. Since the religion that denounces 
most vehemently and threatens the most terrible tor- 
tures has the greatest advantage among the ignorant, 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 269 

who can fear when they cannot reason, Christianity 
spread, crowded out and destroyed paganism and phi- 
losophy, set up its tortures, and for centuries applied 
them. It is true that Christians do not so persecute 
to-day : but the reason is evident ; they are more Intel- 
ligent, and have less power. By the operation of irre- 
sistible law, the world has advanced, and superstition 
lias been left behind in the march ; and thus. Christian- 
ity and its intolerant spirit are fast being superseded, 
and they shall rule the world no more. 

ChTistianity favors sectarianism and priestcraft. In 
Judaism, the priest is the most imposing figure : dressed 
in his sacerdotal robes, he is the visible manifestation 
of the deity, and commands the reverence of all wor- 
shippers. Jesus called himself Lord and Master, and 
his followers have not been slow to imitate him ; and, 
if the priest is not the great I AM, he is the little I am, 
and heathen all who reject the gospel he preaches. 
He prays in the name of the congregation, whom he 
calls " my people : " " We thank thee, God," " we 
beseech thee ; " and most of his people think that he is 
much nearer to God than themselves, so that, when 
sick, they send for him to pray, his prayers are so much 
more potent than their own. A man in the Christian 
church is a man bound to be no wiser than its creed, 
no broader than its intolerant spirit, no better than its 
impractical founder. As soon as he attempts to be any 
of these, the church's anathema is fulminated against 
him : he has committed the sin unpardonable. 

I hail spiritualism as a deliverer from this priest- 
craft, this ecclesiastical bondage, an opener of prisoji- 
doors to the captives, and the usherer in of a new era 
for humanity. Here is no Moses communing with 



270 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR, 

God, who shows him his glory, but tells him to keep 
back the crowd, for, if they break through, tliey shall 
perish ; no Jesus, the true door, denouncing all who 
enter some other way as thieves and robbers ; no pope 
extending his pedal digits to be embraced by the sots of 
superstition ; not even a priest to say " my people : " 
for communion with the spirit-world is open to all 
classes, — children of seven and old people of seventy. 
Peasants who never read a line are as highly favored as 
college-bred professors ; and the sinner, in this respect, 
is as highly favored as the saint. 

We have sects enough : why multiply them ? Too 
long have we allowed men who never had any more 
authority than ourselves to drive down the stakes and 
enclose us within a creed-made fold. Luther found 
the pasture bare, or nothing left but bitter weeds ; 
the streams soiled by the feet of millions and the im- 
purities of ages : he looked over the pale, saw the 
fertile prairie in its virgin beauty, the best of pastur- 
age, living streams flowing through it, and said to 
the hungry, thirsty, dog-bitten crowd, " Out where 
the living waters flow, and the pastures illimitable 
invite us to the feast." And out went a host, but only 
to drive down new stakes and enclose another flock. 
Wesley broke down the ecclesiastical barrier, and took 
the liberty to look for better fare ; but no sooner had 
he found it, than the stake-drivers were set to work, 
the field enclosed, and the sheep solemnly warned 
against straying outside of the fold, where the wolv^es 
lurk to devour the straying lambs of the flock. Hav- 
ing taken the field for ourselves, we must allow all 
others the same privilege. Do not imagine, that, 
because we have outgrown Christianity, wc have 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 271 

attained the highest and best of which the race is capa- 
ble ; that we have learned it all, and may henceforth 
embody our yiews in a creed, build our churches, and 
stand at the door and bark at all outsiders. We have 
done little more than master the alphabet of 'knowl- 
edge : its literature is all but unread. 

Organizations we must have for work : let them be 
a thousand times multiplied. We must unite, or do 
but little of what is so much needed : but let it be a 
union of free men, not for the extension of a sect, but 
for the enlightenment and upbuilding of mankind ; in 
that finding our satisfaction and sufficient reward, and 
rejoicing in all movements that aid this, by whoever 
made. Sectarians look at every thing as it affects their 
sect: if it will help that, then they will assist it ; if it 
will injure their sect, however. much it may benefit 
the race, " Curse it ! " they cry : " for it blesses not 
us ! " Thus the strongest sectarians have been thd 
most deadly foes of progress. 

We must stand where we can rejoice at all progress : 
whatever blesses mankind cannot but be worthy of our 
regard. We shall herald instead of denouncing re- 
form. We shall aid temperance, labor-reform, social 
science, human suffrage, and all other progressive 
movements : they are agencies operated by the mem- 
bers of our grand church of humanity. We shall 
unite with those who do not recognize existence after 
death : they are our brethren also, — many of them 
most noble and true, who have stood by the truth 
amid obloquy, reproach, scorn, and bitter persecution. 
I can belong to no church that excludes them or any 
others who are honestly laboring to benefit the race. 

Spiritualists need carefully to guard against making 



272 CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; OR, 

spirits authority. The world abounds with lazy 
people, who do not wish the trouble of making up their 
minds, and p,re glad to have spirits do this for them. 
What the spirit says is swallowed as unadulterated 
gospel ; and one idol, the Bible, cast down, only that 
another many-headed monster may take its place. 
Nothing can relieve us from the necessity of thinking. 
We must allow nothing to take us off the solid ground 
of reason, or growth is impossible. 

Nothing can absolve us from the obligations of 
morality, the duties which we naturally owe to our- 
selves and others. We must prove that we have a 
better religion by living better lives. When ecclesias- 
tical bonds are being snapped, people are sometimes 
ready to discard even the authority of Nature herself, 
and disregard the laws upon obedience to which our 
own and others' well-being depend. Spirits cannot 
prevent the consequences of wrong-doing from falling 
upon the head of the guilty ; and a spiritualist sinner 
will be made to suffer as certainly as an Orthodox 
good-doer will be rewarded. With increasing intelli- 
gence, we shall learn that the wisest man is he who 
knows the most of what Nature teaches ; and the best 
man, he who most faithfully reduces her lessons to 
practice. 

Our vessel is afloat ; the sails are set ; heaven wafts 
a prosperous gale. Science is our compass. Reason 
our pilot, and angels point the way. Already the 
goodly land appears in view. See its sunny slopes ! 
We can even hear its music in faint tones, as it comes 
wafted over tlie breakers. There stand the friends 
that in youth we loved, on whose cold graves wo 
dropped a tear. They beckon to us I No dark cloud 



SPIRITUALISM SUPERIOR TO CHRISTIANITY. 273 

obscures our vision ; no mist like a curtain hides from 
us the home of the soul. We do not say, '' I hope to 
join you, if God will but help me for the sake of 
Jesus ; " but we boldly say, "Ye, my brethren, live 
and love, and we shall live and love also ! ^' 



18 



GOD PEOPOSED. 



THE GOD PEOPOSED FOE OUE NATIONAL 
CONSTITUTION. 



It is said, that, " once upon a time," the frogs were 
desirous of having a king. On looking around for a 
suitable individual, they spied a fat ox feeding in the 
meadow. Admiring his majestic appearance, they sent a 
deputation to wait upon him, and ask him to accept the 
position. The ox, nothing loath, strode down to the 
marsh, and was properly installed king of frogdom. 
His happy subjects crowded around him to present 
their congratulations ; but, unfortunately for them, as 
he moved his ponderous body to return the compli- 
ments that were croaked from every side, beneath his 
royal hoofs lay a dozen of his loyal subjects crushed 
to the earth. Too late they discovered that an ox, 
though a fine-looking animal, is no fit monarch for 
frogs. 

Before we think of placing a God in the Constitution 
of these United States, it must be well to examine the 
character of the individual proposed for the position, 
or we may find ourselves in the condition of the frogs 
in the fable ; death following every step of our God, 
and we powerless to stop the destruction. 

277 



278 THE GOD PROPOSED 

Up to the present time, I have heard of but one God 
who has been proposed for the highest of all offices in 
the gift of the people ; and that is the Christian's God, 
whom Jesus declared to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob. The God, then, that we are asked to make 
the God of these United States, is Jehovah, the God of 
the Jews, whose sayings and deeds are recorded in 
their so-called sacred books and in the Christian Scrip- 
tures, from which we can, fortunately, obtain a knowl- 
edge of his actual character. It is furnished, if we are to 
believe what these books say, by himself and his friends, 
it is true ; and this must be taken into account, as we 
may suppose them to represent him in a more favorable 
light than the facts will really warrant. 

Moses gives us a portrait of him that is yery beauti- 
ful : " He is the Rock ; his work is perfect ; for all his 
ways are judgment ; a God of truth and without 
iniquity, just and right is he " (Deut. xxxii. 4). "What 
an excellent example to place before the officers of our 
government! Of himself he says, " The Lord God is 
merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in 
goodness and truth " (Exod. xxxiv. 6). Who could ob- 
ject to such a God as this ? He needs but to be known 
to be loved, but to be heard to be obeyed. It may be 
well, however, to see whether his deeds correspond with 
his words. Men accepted for what they claim to be, and 
State-prison convicts are patterns of all excellency. 
It may possibly be so with gods. Let us see. 

Jehovah informs Adam (Gen. ii. 17), that, if he 
shall eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, in the 
day that he eats of it he shall surely die. But, instead 
of dying in that day, Adam lived more than nine hun- 
dred years afterward. Could Jehovah have made a 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 279 

mistake ? That is, of course, impossible. Did he really 
intend to deceive the man ? Was not some other kind 
of death meant ? If truthful in every other respect, 
we will give him the benefit of the doubt ; but, if other- 
wise, we shall suspect him, to say the least. 

According to the sixteenth chapter of 1st Samuel, 
Jehovah told Samuel to go to Jesse the Bethlehemite, 
and anoint one of his sons, whom he had provided for 
king over Israel, in the place of Saul. But Samuel 
replies, " How can I go ? If Saul hear it, he will kill 
me." Saul was king, and he would kill the man who 
thus sought to put another man in his place. Now, 
mark the advice of Jehovah : *' And the Lord said. Take 
a heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to 
the Lord." Was it for that Jehova,h wished him to go ? 
No such thing; but to anoint David king. What was 
he to take the heifer for ? To deceive Saul, and thus 
escape the consequences of his deed by lying. You 
may call that a white lie. The crime of lying consists 
in the deception practised ; and in this respect it was as 
black as any lie. The difference between that and an 
ordinary lie is, that it was a mean, cowardly lie. The 
man who tells an out-and-out lie stands on his feet 
when he tells it ; but the man who tells a lie like that 
crawls on the ground like a snake. I have no respect 
for cowards, be they men or gods. How much better 
it would have been for Jehovah to say to Samuel, 
" Tell the truth, and I will attend to the consequences " ! 
or, better still, " If you are afraid to do what I tell you, 
let it alone, and I will find a more courageous man " ! 

If we are to have a constitutional God of the United 
States, I think it will be generally acknowledged that 
he should bo a truthful Crod. 1 know that politicians, 



280 THE GOD PROPOSED 

as a class, care but little about truth, unless it can be 
made to subserve their purposes. I know that par- 
tisan newspapers, especially just before election, care 
as little about truth as a hungry hyena does about 
grace before meat. I know, also, that many priests 
and orthodox tract-society managers are not very 
scrupulous about lying, when they think it will help 
" the Lord's cause." Tliis I know : but the body of the 
people love truth ; feed on lies only because the truth 
is withheld from them ; and, if they are to have a na- 
tional God, want, as they must surely need, a God of 
truth ; one who will neither lie himself, nor induce 
others to lie. I object to Jehovah, then, as our God, 
because he is a liar. 

After the separation of Abram and Lot, Jehovah told 
Abram to walk through the length and breadth of the 
land of Canaan, and said, " All the land which thou 
seest, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed forever " 
(Gen. xiii. 15). He made this promise still more defi- 
nite subsequently by saying, " Unto thy seed have I 
given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great 
river, the River Euphrates " (Gen. xv. 18). The 
promise made and sworn to by Jehovah to Abraham 
was repeated to Isaac and Jacob. How was it ful- 
filled ? Abraham himself never received a foot of it 
(Acts vii. 5). Nearly five hundred years passed away 
before his seed commenced the conquest of the prom- 
ised country ; and so slowly did it proceed, that it was 
not till nearly four hundred years after this that even 
Zion, the stronghold of Jerusalem, was taken from the 
Jebusites (2 Sam. v. 7) ; and less than four hundred 
years after this the kingdom of Judah was overthrown by 
Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. lii.). To-day the nine thousand 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 281 

Jews that dwell in Palestine are foreigners ; and they 
may see what the promises of Jehovah are worth, and 
how little dependence is to be placed upon his word. 
Even in the latter part of David's reign, and that of 
Solomon's, when the country of the Israelites was 
most extended, the northern part of the promised 
territory was in the hands of the Phoenicians and the 
Syrians, while the southern part was held by the 
Philistines and the Eygptians. 

" From Dan to Beersheba," which designated the 
length of Canaan, even near the close of David's reign 
(2 Chr. xxi. 2), is only about a hundred and forty miles ; 
while the distance from the river of Egypt to the Eu- 
phrates, the land promised to the seed of Abraham, is 
between five and six hundred miles. The little that the 
Israelites did possess was only for a few years at a time, 
fitful occupancy of a small territory, obtained by theft 
and murder, only held by continual fighting, and 
whichjhey have lost possession of for more than two 
thousand years. This Jehovah, who thus swore to 
the fathers and lied to the children, is the very last of 
all gods to be chosen by a people who love truth, and 
desire it to beconj^ universal. 

The same Jehovah lied to David and his descend- 
ants, lied plainly and unequivocally. In the 89tli Psalm 
we read, " I have made a covenant with my chosen, 
I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I 
establish forever, and build up thy throne to all gen- 
erations." And again, " His seed, also will I make to 
endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven." 
But the most definite promise is this : " If his 
children forsake my law, and walk not in my judg- 
ments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my 



282 THE GOD PROPOSED 

commandments ; then will I visit their transgressions 
with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Never- 
theless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from 
him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant 
will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of 
my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will 
not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, 
and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be estab- 
lished forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness 
in heaven." 

If the sun had endured no longer than David's 
throne, we had never been ; and, if the moon had been 
no better established, we had never seen it. 

Long after this, when there seemed to be danger of 
the utter destruction of the kingdom of Judah, the 
promise is repeated to Jeremiah (Jer.Yxxiii.17): "Thus 
saith the Lord : David sliall never want a man to sit 
upon the throne of the house of Israel ; neither shall 
the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer 
burnt- offerings and to kindle meat-offerings, and to do 
sacrifice continually." Again he says, " If ye can 
break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the 
night, and that there should not be day and night in 
their season ; then may also my covenant be broken 
with David my servant, that he should not have a son 
to reign upon his throne ; and with the Levites the 
priests, my ministers." 

Let us see how these unconditional promises, from 
the God that would not lie to David, were fulfilled. 
David reigned about forty years, then Solomon forty ; 
but his son Rehoboam lost the government of ten 
tribes, which were ruled over by Jeroboam, a man in 
no way related to David. And the kingdom of Judah, 



FOR OIJR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 283 

as the government of the remaining tribes, Judah and 
Benjamin, was then called, lasted under the dynasty of 
David about four hundred years, till Nebuchadnezzar 
destroyed Jerusalem, carried the people into captivity, 
and destroyed " the throne of David." 

What kind of a forever is five hundred years ? 
When Jehovah told Jeremiah that David should 
never vt^ant a man to sit upon his throne, he must 
have known, that within ten years, at the outside, 
there would be no throne of David to sit on. It is said 
that he who will swear will lie ; and it appears to be 
as true of gods as men. Where is the throne of David 
to-day, that was to be as the sun before Jehovah ? 
Where are the Levites offering burnt-offerings? and 
where are they doing sacrifice continually ? 

The condition of the Jew among us, which has been 
appealed to as a proof of the truth of the Bible, is 
one of the strongest evidences of the untruth of Jeho- 
vah. Destitute of a nation, destitute of the ceremoni- 
als of his ancient faith, he shows us the sad conse- 
quences of the trust of his race in the promise-making, 
but no less promise-breaking, Jehovah, who has ruined 
one nation, and whom traitors to freedom are inviting 
to ruin this country also, — the only refuge for the God- 
cursed of all lands. 

Some children lie in their infancy, but, when their 
reasoning faculties become active, see the impropriety 
of it, and thenceforth speak the truth ; but Jehovaii 
does not seem to improve in this respect with age. 
I find Paul stating (2 Thess. ii. 11), that, because 
certain people would not receive the love of the truth, 
God should send them strong delusion, that they 
should believe a lie, that they all might be damned. 



284 THE GOD PROPOSED 

The God that Paul believed in was Jehovah ; and, be- 
cause people do not love the truth, he will lie to them, 
that they may believe the lie, and be damned ! How 
much love of truth has that Being who adopts such 
lying measures ? how much justice has he who lies 
to people, and then damns them because they believe 
him ? and how much propriety is there in putting 
this lying Jehovah into our national Constitution ? 

Bad as was the treatment that the Jews received at 
the hands of Jehovah, it was the best ever vouchsafed 
by him to any people : for he is a partial God; and I 
bring this as another objection against him. He 
chooses Abram, out of all the Arab chiefs of his time, to 
be the father of his peculiar people; lie loves Jacob 
rather than Esau, and that before either of them is 
born, " that the purpose of God, according to election, 
might stand,'' as Paul tells us. He chose the Israel- 
ites from all the nations of the earth, delivered them 
from Egypt by a series of most astounding miracles, 
blew a passage for them through the Red Sea, fed 
them with bread from heaven, and sent quails by the 
million, caused water to spring from the solid rock, 
and for forty years never allowed the clothes on their 
backs nor the shoes on their feet to grow old or worn. 
He says, " The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a 
special people unto himself, above all people that are 
on the face of the earth" (Deut. vii. 6). And again: 
" You only have I known of all the families of the 
earth" (Amos iii. 2). The peaceful and industrious 
Chinese, the philosophic Hindoos, the intelligent and 
religious Egyptians, the brave Assyrians, and the artis- 
tic Greeks, Jehovah never knew ; for them he never 
cared. In the darkness, a thousand million of God's 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 285 

neglected sons groped through the centuries ; but 
this handful of Israelites, his beloved children, lived in 
a blaze of divine glory, and were permitted, nay, com- 
manded, to butcher their brothers who would not be- 
come their slaves, and bow down and worship their 
little-souled and partial God ; and those who are mov- 
ing for the Jehovah amendment in the Constitution 
not only worship this unjust Divinity, but seem to be 
desirous to compel their more enlightened and more 
manly neighbors to worship him also. 

This country justly prides itself upon its general 
intelligence. The few do not shoot up like pines, and 
the many gquat like toad-stools. The average culture 
of the people of the Northern States, at least, is proba- 
bly as great as or greater than that of any other country 
on the globe. If we are to have a God for our nation, 
he should be an intelligent God, or how can intelligent 
people respect him ? I object, then, to Jehovah, because 
he is an ignorant Cfod, — so ignorant of geography, that 
he does not know either the shape of the earth or its 
size, and supposed that a forty-days' rain would drown 
it (Gen. vii. 4). He knows so little of astronomy, that 
he supposes the earth to be the universe, to which the 
heavens hold the same relation as a curtain does to a 
bed (Isa. xl. 22). He thinks the stars are " set" in 
this stretched curtain ; and when he sliall roll it up, as 
he threatens to do at some time, he supposes the stars 
will fall to the earth (Isa. xxxiv. 4 ; Rev. vi. 13) . He has 
so little knowledge of the number of species of animals 
on the globe, that he supposed Noah could preserve, in 
a box about five hundred feet long, less than one hun- 
dred broad, and about fifty high, seven of every kind of 
bird, male and female, and two of every other kind of 



286 THE GOD PBOPOSED 

animal, and provisions for them for twelve months; 
one-fourth of which could never have got into it. 
He is so ignorant of zoology, that he tells the Israel- 
ites they must not eat the hare, because it chews the 
cud (Lev. xi. 6), — a thing that no hare does; thus 
mistaking a rodent for a ruminant. He knows so 
little of geology, that he supposes the earth was made 
less than six thousand years ago, and brought into a 
condition similar to the present in less than a week ; 
and is so ignorant of the history of man, whom he pre- 
tends to have made, that he supposes all human beings 
descended from a single pair, who were made long 
after the valley of the Nile was occupied by civilized 
people ; and then, to crown his imbecility, threatens 
man with damnation unless he believes that of which 
he fails to give him sufficient evidence. There is not 
a boy of fourteen years of age in any New-England 
grammar-school who does not know more than this 
Jewish Jehovah is represented in the Bible as know- 
ing; and a man so ignorant would be a laughing-stock 
to his whole neighborhood. The Hottentots of Africa 
might debate whether a God as ignorant should be 
admitted into the constitution of their government ; 
but the men who propose him for the United-States 
Constitution are the deadliest enemies of intelligence. 
As a nation, the United States has been a grand 
success. The fathers of our country undertook to 
form a republic uncursed by kings and government 
priests ; where all men could have liberty of conscience, 
for all religious faiths should be equal in the eye of the 
law. They sought to make a home for the oppressed, 
the king-cursed, the poverty-stricken, of all lands ; and 
they did it. We undertook to rid the land of slavery, 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 287 

that it might be in spirit, as in name, the land of the free ; 
and we have done it. Much remains to be done to 
make this country what the wisest and best desire : and, 
if we are to have a God for the country, it should be one 
who has been successful ; one in whom we can have 
confidence that he will help us to succeed in carrying 
out still needed reforms. I object, then, to Jehovah, 
because he has utterly failed in nearly every thing that 
he has undertaken. Hell only exists in consequence of 
the failure of heaven. The very first human beings that 
Jehovah made failed so utterly, that he cursed them 
almost as soon as they were out of his hands. The 
world that lie had made, and pronounced good, was 
such a dead failure, that it grieved him at his heart, and 
he destroyed it, and tried it over again with scarcely 
any better success. He chose the Israelites, that they 
might be a holy people unto him ; yet they turned out to 
be the vilest of wretches, and made him so angry, that 
he cursed them in his wrath, and destroyed them in his 
fury. Mankind failed so utterly, that he left heaven to 
save them ; and for this purpose became a Jewish baby, 
and subsequently a carpenter and a preacher ; allowed 
men to kill him, and then sent his disciples unto all the 
world to tell people that they might be saved by believ- 
ing the story. Yet so bunglingly did he manage the 
whole matter, that not one in fifty of the world's pop- 
ulation since that time has ever believed the account ; 
and the more intelligent people become, the less in- 
clined they are to believe it, and the more certain they 
are to be damned, — the very fate from which Jehovah 
professes to have undertaken to deliver them, — and 
the myriads of hell's victims are to howl his faihire to 
all eternity. 



288 THE GOD PROPOSED 

Shall we suffer a God who so mismanages his own 
affairs to manage ours ? Obey such a God as this, and 
we should soon be in the condition of his chosen people 
when they wished to return to the Egypt they had fled 
from, or as they were when he sold them into the hands 
of Nebuchadnezzar. 

One reason of Jehovah's want of success may be that 
he is vacillating, — lacking that strong will, governed 
by intelligence, which moves toward its object without 
flinching, because wisdom has determined the course 
marked out to be the best. 

" It repented the Lord that he had made man on the 
earth, and it grieved him at his heart" (Gen. vi. 6). 
It is therefore presumable, that, if he had known how 
he would turn out, he never would have made him. 
After leading the Israelites into the wilderness, they so 
provoked him, that he declared he would smite them 
with the pestilence, and disinherit them ; and would 
have done it, apparently, had not Moses expostulated 
with him, and led this vacillating Divinity to " repent 
of the evil that he thought to do unto his people " 
(Exod. xxxii. 14). Moses saw, that, if he did this, his 
reputation among other nations would be destroyed ; 
and, on presenting this view of the matter to Jehovah, 
he appears to have seen the wisdom of the suggestion. 
A prime-minister often knows more than a king ; and 
a prophet, we see, may be more intelligent than the 
God that sends him. 

Jehovah sent word to Ilezekiah, " Set thine house in 
order ; for thou shalt die, and not live " (Isa. xxxviii.). 
But Hezekiah, as many others would have done, felt 
as if he would rather live than die: he said, " Remem- 
ber now, Lord ! I beseech thee, how I have walked 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 289 

before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and 
have done that which is good in thy sight. And 
Hezekiah wept sore." This appears to have led 
to a reconsideration of the matter on the part of Jeho- 
vah, and he sent word to him that he had lengthened 
his days fifteen years. 

We read that the Ninevites at one time offended 
Jehovah greatly, and he sent Jonah to announce to them 
their unconditional destruction. Jonah was unwill- 
ing to go ; and it required a three-days' residence in 
a whale to make him obedient to the heavenly voice. 
When " he reached Nineveh, he went through the 
streets crying, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be 
overthrown." But, at the preaching of this foreign 
prophet, the whole city repented, and fasted, and 
" cried mightily unto God ; " and then God repented, 
and concluded to spare the repentant city, regardless of 
the feelings of Jonah, who thought he was badly used. 
If Jehovah knew the end from the beginning, he must 
have known that the Ninevites would repent, and the 
city be spared ; and I think Jonah had just ground 
of complaint in being sent there with that lie in his 
mouth. 

What confidence can we have in a God who is 
grieved at his heart at the foreseen consequences of his 
own actions, and undoes in a day what it took him 
more than a thousand years to accomplish, and then, 
after it is over, promises that he will not do it again ? 
(Gen. viii. 21.) 

I object to Jehovah's name in our national Con- 
stitution also, because he is a male God, and neither 
has, nor ever had, any female associated with him in 
the divine government. He is a stern father, chas- 

19 



290 THE GOD PROPOSED 

tising in anger every unrepentant son. But where is 
the tender-hearted mother, that with a kiss receives 
the erring child to her bosom, and melts him into re- 
pentance with her tears ? God the Father, God the 
Son, God the Holy Ghost ; three unmarried males, con- 
stituting a monkish trinity, from all eternity to all 
eternity. I object to him (them) as utterly unfit to 
reign over us, and especially when women shall have 
their political rights ; and the day cannot be far distant. 
This is the God who thunders in the ears of the first 
woman, " Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he 
shall rule over thee ; " who made man first, and woman 
only because man needed somebody to help him ; who 
set a trap for Immanity, and baited it so that human 
nature could not resist the temptation, and then cursed 
all women because tlie first one went into it. A 
heavenly mother would never have cursed all her 
daughters with pain on account of the trivial fault of 
the first ; nor would she ever have made the penalty 
for their misdoing unutterable woe forever. If we 
are to have a God in the Constitution of the United 
States, it must be a God in whom the sexes are equally 
represented, or our Government will be as one-sided 
as the Bible. It is altogether too much so now. 

TJiefate of the Jews, who trusted in this Jehovah, should 
forever prevent us from following their example. 

The Lord, we are told, delivered Israel out of the 
hand of the Egyptians, broke the yoke of their bond- 
age, and became their guide to the land of promise. 
So near was it, that a man could have walked there in 
a couple of weeks ; but, under the guidance of Jeho- 
vah, it took them forty years, and only two men arrived 
there who started from Egypt. So disgusted were 



FOU OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 291 

the Israelites with the conduct of their God, that they 
desired to return to Egypt, preferring the slavery of 
Piiaraoh to that of Jehovah. Nay, they even made a 
golden calf, and worshipped it in preference, and said, 
" These be thy gods, Israel ! that brought thee up 
out of the land of Egypt." And there is no doubt that 
the calf had as much to do with it as Jehovah. But 
Jehovah was so angry, that he caused the Levites, who 
were just as guilty as the rest, to murder three thou- 
sand of the people in consequence (Exod. xxxii. 28). 

When their descendants arrived at the promised 
land, they were compelled to fight for many years in 
order to obtain possession of what Jehovah promised 
to give them. Whenever they failed in battle, it was 
because Jehovah was angry with them, of course ; and, 
whenever they succeeded, it was because he helped 
them. But his help seems to have done them but lit- 
tle good. This is the way that he served them, as he 
himself has recorded for our instruction : " The anger 
of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered 
them into the hands of spoilers, and he sold them into 
the hands of their enemies round about, so that they 
could not any longer stand before their enemies. 
Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord 
was against them for evil ; and they were sadly dis- 
tressed" (Judges ii. 14, 15). 

" The Lord strengthened Eglon,king of Moab, against 
Israel." " So the children of Israel served Eglon, king 
of Moab, eighteen years " (Judges iii. 12, 14). 

Shall we, who have just liberated our slaves, put 
this Jehovah into our Constitution, who thus kid- 
napped a whole nation, and sold them for slaves? 

" The Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king 



292 THE GOD PROPOSED 

of Canaan," " and twenty years he mightily oppressed 
the children of Israel." And so continues the dis- 
graceful record. Out of three hundred and thirty 
years, in the time of the Judges, when Jehovah was 
their king, they were slaves, in the hands of their ene- 
mies, for one hundred and eleven years, or more than 
one-third of the time. We are told, it is true, that all 
this happened because the children of Israel did evil 
in the sight of Jehovah, and because they would not 
obey his commands ; but when we read (Judges xiii. 
1) that " the Lord delivered them into the hands of 
the Philistines forty years," the explanation is in- 
sufficient. In forty years, in a state of bondage, there 
could have been very few alive of those whose sins 
drove them into captivity ; and what kind of a God can 
that.be who kept innocent millions in slavery for the 
fault of a few ? A sensible man would have modified 
his commands in the first place, or taken such measures 
as would have led the people to see that it was to their 
interest to obey them. As Jehovah did neither, he 
proved his unfitness to rule over the Israelites, and 
his infinite unfitness to rule over us. 

On one occasion Jehovah sold them into the hands 
of the Philistines and the children of Ammon, who 
sorely oppressed them, so that they cried unto him. 
But he replied, " Ye have forsaken me, and served 
other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more" 
(Judges X. 13). But even this was a lie ; for the very 
next chapter tells us that the Lord delivered the chil- 
dren of Ammon into the hands of Jephthah, and they 
were subdued before the children of Israel. But the 
poor wretches were only delivered for a few years, to be 
sold again into the hands of their enemies by their 
Godly owner. 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 293 

The Israelites did much better in the reigns of Saul, 
David, and Solomon, than at any previous time; for 
they had less to do with Jehovah, or rather with his 
priests, and more to do with men who understood their 
needs and attended to their supply. But their whole 
history, from the exodus to the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem, is one long, bloody trail down the ages. 

Make Jehovah God of these United States, and let 
the people become obedient to his commands as they 
would be explained by his priests, and our history 
would be like theirs, and this paradise of liberty be- 
come a Pandemonium of tyranny, a plague-spot on the 
face of the earth. 

A man may be known, it is said, by the company he 
keeps ; and why not a god ? Judging Jehovah by this, 
I cannot but regard him as utterly unfit for the office 
to which his American friends are so desirous of ele- 
vating him. 

He is " the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." 
Abraham is styled in the Bible '' the father of the faith- 
ful, and the friend of God ; " an Arab chief, rude and 
hospitable, but crafty, superstitious, licentious, cow- 
ardly, and cruel. Twice he induced his wife to lie for 
him ; and in both cases Jehovah cursed the men to whom 
she lied, but never rebuked either her or Abraham. 
He turned another wife with her child into the wil- 
derness, v^here, according to the story, she would have 
perished, had not an angel saved her ; and he receives 
more credit from Jehovah for his willingness to mur- 
der his son than for any other deed of his life. 

Of Isaac we know but little ; but, like his father 
Abraham, he was cowardly, lying, and selfish, putting 
his wife's chastity in hazard to save his life ; though, as 



294 THE GOD PROPOSED 

the event proved, there was no danger whatever. The 
blessing that he gave his son in his old age shows the 
character of the man. Part of it reads, " Let people 
serve thee, and nations bow down to thee : be lord over 
thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to 
thee." That is essentially Jewish and Jehovistic. 
Isaac had the same feeling for his pet son that Jehovah 
had for his pet nation. 

Of Jacob we know considerable : he was an especial 
favorite of Jehovah : he loved him, if Paul is to be be- 
lieved, even before he was born, and gave him, through 
life, many signal instances of his favor. Yet he was a 
liar, cheat, slaveholder, polygamist, and essentially 
mean man. He lied to his father, most shamefully 
lied, and in a way that showed him to have had large 
practice. He cheated his brother and his uncle ; and 
when his sons murdered the men of a whole city, and 
took all the survivors captive, this is what the selfish old 
stock-raiser said : " Ye have troubled me to make me 
to stink among the inhabitants of the land j . . . . 
and I shall be 'destroyed, I and my house." No re- 
buke for the horrible crime committed, no word of 
pity for the widow and orphans ; but, " / shall be de- 
stroyed, i" and my housed "Ye have troubled me^ 
If they had not troubled him, and he had been in no 
danger, it is evident that the deed would never have 
troubled him. 

Yet this is the man whom Jehovah blesses, and with 
whom he converses ; to whom he makes splendid 
promises, and with whom he wrestled a whole night, 
and lost, Jacob obtaining a blessing, which appears to 
have been the prize, though at the expense of a dis- 
located thigh. 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 295 

Another of the favorites of Jehovah was Moses, a 
man, apparently, of a good deal of mental ability for 
the time in which he lived, and proud of his nation, 
yet crafty, harsh, exacting, and blood-thirsty. He mur- 
dered an Egyptian, fled to Midian, married the daughter 
of a Midianite priest, and lived there for forty years. 
One might suppose that he would have had some re- 
spect for the people of this land of his adoption. Yet, 
on the journey through the wilderness, he sent an 
army against Midian, that slew every man, but saved 
alive the widows, babies, and girls. As they returned 
from the massacre with the weeping captives, Moses 
meets them, and cries out, " Have ye saved all the 
women alive ? Now, therefore, kill every male among 
the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known 
man by lying with him : " the girls they were to keep 
alive for themselves. What Camanche chief ever 
committed a greater atrocity than this ? . And yet he 
was one of Jehovah's favorites, talking with him for 
hours together as familiarly as one man talks with 
another. 

After the death of Moses, Joshua became the leader 
of the people. His public life was that of a marauder 
and human butcher, who seems to have had no more 
pity than a hungry tiger. For years, at the head of 
a band of cut-throats, he went through Canaan among 
a peaceable people, destroying their cities, killing men, 
women, and children, and distributing their wealth and 
their country among his followers. " The Lord," we 
are informed, " was with him wherever he went ; " and 
the result is told in the bloody record : " They utterly 
destroyed all that was in the city [Jericho] , both man 
and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and 



296 THE GOD PROPOSED 

ass, with the edge of the sword." And again : " Joshua 
drew not his hand back until he had utterly destroyed 
all the inhabitants of Ai." So friendly was Jehovah 
with this man, and so much sympathy did he have 
with him, that on one occasion, when the people of 
the country united to defend themselves against this 
godly marauder, and were repulsed, and the daylight 
failed, as Joshua pursued the flying host, Jehovah 
stayed the sun in the heaven for about a whole day 
that the massacre might be complete, and rained down 
great stones from heaven upon the poor wretches 
who were fighting to save their families and their 
homes. 

I question whether the whole world's literature pre- 
sents a bloodier page than that of the tenth chapter of 
Joshua : — 

'' And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote 
it with the edge of the sword ; and the king thereof he 
utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were 
therein. 

"And he smote it [Libnali] with the edge of the 
sword, and all the souls that were therein : he let none 
remain in it. 

" The Lord delivered Lachish into the hand of 
Israel, which took it on the second day, and smote it 
with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were 
therein." 

Then follows a list of other cities whose inhabitants 
were butchered, from the helplessly old to babes at 
the breast ; and the document ends : "So Joshua smote 
all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of 
the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings : he 
left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 297 

breathed." There is good reason to believe that some 
who are clamorous for God in the Constitution desire 
just such a God as this. In a fair intellectual strug- 
gle, they acknowledge that they are no match for their 
opponents ; but with soldiers, muskets, cannon, and 
this Israelitish Moloch, on their side, they would leave 
none remaining, " as the Lord God of Israel com- 
manded." 

There is another man of God who must not be for- 
gotten in this connection, — the Jewish Hercules, Sam- 
son. An angel of Jehovah foretold his birth. When 
he was a child, Jehovah blessed him. On the occasion 
of his marriage, he wagered thirty changes of raiment 
with thirty young men that they could not find out 
the meaning of a riddle which he propounded to them. 
Having lost, the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, 
and he went down to Ashkelon and slew thirty men, 
stripped them, and gave their garments to the young 
men (Judges xiv. 19). 

Can those men who desire Jehovah to rule over this 
nation have read these passages ? If they have, do 
they believe them ? If they do, how dare they present 
this gamblers' companion, and instigator of murder, 
for our acceptance and worship ? 

On another occasion " the Spirit of the Lord came 
mightily upon him." We naturally look for some cor- 
responding lordly deed ; and we find it. He found 
a new jaw-bone of an ass, and put forth his hand 
and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. We 
should like to know what the nine hundred were doing 
while he slew the first hundred. A m«tn a minute 
gave him sixteen and a half hours of steady murder. 
There stands the butcher ; here lie his victims ; and 



298 THE GOD PROPOSED 

he exclaims, " Heaps upon heaps, with the jaw-bone of 
an ass have I slain a thousand men." But now he is 
sore athirst : his long, unremitting labor has made him 
faint, and he is ready to die : unless he can obtain 
water, he must perish. What is he doing now ? kneel- 
ing! praying ! Can it be possible that such a murder- 
ing wretch as that can pray ? Certainly : he has a God, 
the very image of himself: it is Jehovah. Listen to his 
prayer : " Thou hast given this great deliverance into 
the hand of thy servant ; and now shall I die for thirst, 
and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised ? " Jeho- 
vah heard the prayer of his faithful servant, and from 
the bloody, battered jaw-bone flowed water, that 
quenched his thirst, and his spirit revived. 

Then comes Jehovah's great friend David, of whom 
he said, " I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man 
after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will" 
(Acts xiii. 22). He must have seen what a noble 
man he was destined to be. After the death of David, 
Jehovah says of him, " My servant David, who kept 
my commandments, and who followed me with all his 
heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes " 
(1 Kings xiv. 8). He was fearless, firm, generous at 
times, pious, and poetic : but he was guilty of almost 
every crime ; and it is quite safe to say that no crimi- 
nal as great as he lives in any civilized country to-day. 
When he was not more than sixteen years of age, he 
murdered two hundred men to please his prospective 
father-in-law, and mutilated their persons in a way 
that would disgrace a man-eating savage (1 Sam. xviii. 
27). * 

He was captain of a gang of banditti ; and in return 
for the hospitality of the king of Gath, to whom he 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 299 

fled when Saul pursued him, killed the inhabitants of 
a whole city with whom that king was friendly, leaving 
not a soul alive, lest they should tell the tale of his 
villany (1 Sam. xxvii. 9-12). And yet, after this, 
he says, " The Lord rewarded me according to my 
righteousness ; according to the cleanness of my hands 
hath he recompensed me " (2 Sam. xxii. 21). 

This reminds me of an epitaph that I once saw in 
Wales over the grave of a prize-fighter and drunken 
scoundrel : — 

"A man so true, there are but few. 
And difficult to find ; 
A man so just, and true to trust. 
There is not left behind," 

But this was when David was a young man : perhaps 
he repented, and became a changed character, in his 
riper years. 

In the latter part of his life, Rabbah, a city of the 
Ammonites, was taken ; and David '' brouglit forth the 
people that were therein, and put them under harrows 
of iron and under axes of iron, and made them pass 
through the brick-kiln ; and thus did he unto the cities 
of the children of Ammon " (2 Sam. xii. 31). To 
find the equal of such a cruel wretch as this, we need 
to read the annals of the Fiji Islands. 

But he certainly repented before he died. Not he : 
he had nothing to repent of. Jehovah acknowledges 
that he had done but one wrong deed in his whole 
life (1 Khigs XV. 5) ; and that he had repented of long 
before. With his dying breath, the hoary sinner ad- 
vised his son Solomon to kill the men whose lives he 
had sworn to spare. 



300 THE GOD PROPOSED 

Time fails me to tell of Rahab the harlot, who saved 
her life by betraying into the hands of murderers her 
own city ; of Jephthah, who offered up his daughter a 
burnt-offering to Jehovah ; Jael, who murdered the 
fugitive king, after receiving him hospitably into her 
tent ; of Ehud, who slew the king of Moab, and who 
said, as he plunged the dagger into him, " I have a 
message from God unto thee ; " of Jehu, who slew the 
seventy innocent sons of Ahab, his whole kindred and 
his priests, and of whom Jehovah said he did what was 
in his heart ; and a host of lesser liars, thieves, and 
murderers, who are spoken of in terms of praise by 
Jehovah. 

There is scarcely a man or woman mentioned in the 
Bible, with whom Jehovah was friendly, whose life 
was not stained by crime that would, in this day, send 
a person to the State-prison or to the gallows. 

Even the prophets of Jehovah, who are generally 
supposed to have been patterns of all excellency, were 
far from being models of virtue. Samuel was a liar, 
as we have seen : he both murdered, and urged others 
to murder ; and found fault with Saul because he saved 
the lives of kings whom he had captured. Elijah calls 
down fire from heaven, and kills men with no more 
concern than if they had been flies (2 Kings i.). 
Elisha curses children in the name of Jehovah ; and 
bears tear forty-two of them (2 Kings ii. 24) . Jeremiah 
never scruples to lie when the king advises him 
(Jer. xxxviii. 27) ; and some of his prayers are only 
second to the witch-curses of David. Hosea buys an 
adulteress to live with him (Hos. 1. 3), after having 
illicit intercourse by command of Jehovah with a pros- 
titute. Is this the kind of God, a companion and 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION 301 

abetter of liars, thieves, and murderers, whose name 
is to be placed in the Constitution of our country, and 
whose character is to be upheld as a model of all ex- 
cellency ? 

I object to Jehovah in our Constitution because he 
is fierce, jealous, cruel, vindictive, and even malignant. 
We might as well be lost souls in the hands of a tor- 
menting Devil as to be the subjects of such a God. 
Moses describes Jehovah correctly : " The Lord thy Grod 
is a consuming fire, even a jealous God " (Deut. iv. 24). 
The writer of Hebrews has a similar opinion : " God is a 
consuming fire." Watts, the Christian poet, draws his 
portrait for us : — 

" Adore and tremble ; for our God 

Is a consuming fire : 
His jealous eyes with wrath inflame. 

And raise his vengeance higher. 
Almighty vengeance, how it burns ! 

How bright his fury glows ! 
Vast magazines of plagues and storms 

Lie treasured for his foes." 

Nor is this portrait overdrawn. Jehovah himself, 
by Jeremiah, says, " I myself will fight against you 
with an outstretched arm, even in anger, and in fury, 
and in great wrath." No wonder the poor Jews suffered 
mder such circumstances. To Moses he says (Deut. 
xxxii. 22), "A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall 
burn unto the lowest hell ; " and again, to Jeremiah, 
" Ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn 
forever." If we heard a man talk so to his children, we 
should set him down as passionate, revengeful, unrea- 
sonable, and utterly unfit to be a parent. It is much 
less excusable in a God. Shall we make this eternally- 



802 THE GOD PROPOSED 

angry and infinitely-furious Jeliovaft Lord of these 
United States ? 

The deeds of Jehovah are in correspondence with 
his words. He commences his career by a fit of curs- 
ing, of which woman obtains the largest portion. He 
follows this by drowning the entire human race be- 
cause their conduct did not meet his approbation, and 
thus made himself king of murderers, who takes the 
life of the world as a human murderer takes the life 
of a man. 

When he sent Moses to Pharaoh to tell him to let the 
people go, he said, " But I will harden his heart, that 
he shall not let the people go " (Exod. iv. 21) : and then 
we, are told that " the Lord hardened Pharaoli's heart, 
so that he would not let the children of Israel go out 
of his land " (Exod. xi. 10) ; and because Pliaroah did 
not let them go, when he had so hardened his heart 
that he would not, he murdered the first-born of his 
entire nation. 

There is a State-prison at Charlestown, where several 
hundred prisoners are held. Pres. Grant sends a let- 
ter to the superintendent, commanding him to let the 
prisoners go ; but, before the letter reaches him, he 
surrounds the penitentiary with a guard of several 
thousand soldiers, who have strictest orders to allow no 
prisoner to go out. The superintendent receives the 
letter of the President, but, owing to the guard, is un- 
able to set a single prisoner at liberty. " What ! will 
you not let the prisoners go ? " writes the President : 
" then I will show you my power, and make you glad 
to let them go." He hangs the oldest son of the super- 
intendent in front of the prison, in sight of the heart- 
broken father and mother, as a punishment for his 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. . 303 

disobedience. Can anybody imagine t^ie horror with 
which such a crime as this would strike tlie heart of the 
country? Multiply this by a million, and you have 
some idea of the crime of Jehovah. 

Shall we make this greatest of wrong-doers a God, 
and our God ? Forbid it, says humanity ; and it must 
be forbidden. 

When Jehovah came down on Mt. Sinai, he said to 
Moses, " Charge the people, lest they break through 
unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish," — 
as moths die when they fly into the flame : so Jehovah 
is a flaming fire, and the people must be kept out, or 
they will perish. The precaution was a necessary 
one. When the ark of Jehovah was sent from the 
land of the Philistines back to Jud^a, the cattle that 
drew it went into a field near Bethshemesh. The 
Bethshemites were apparently inquisitive, and thought 
this a good opportunity to see what was in an old box, 
of which they had frequently heard ; but, had it been 
Pandora's box, it could not have been more deadly. 
Jehovah was very angry at their intrusion, and slew 
of the men of Bethshemesh fifty thousand and seventy ! 
This God can wink at lying, theft, murder, licentious- 
ness, and praise the men who are guilty of these 
crimes ; but, when inquisitive people look into one of 
his chests, he strikes tens of thousands with death. 
Shall we place the name of this almighty Bluebeard 
in our national Constitution ? 

In the fifteenth chapter of the First of Samuel, we 
are informed that Jehovah told Samuel that he re- 
membered what Amalek did to Israel when he came 
up from Egypt: that was, remember, four hundred 
years before. For this he tells him to command Saul 



304 - THE GOD PROPOSED 

to smite Amalek, and utterly destroy man, woman, 
infant, and suckling ; and, because Saul did not wholly 
execute the horrible command, Jehovah was angry 
with him, and repented that he had made him king 
over Israel. 

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, nearly three 
hundred years since, an immense Armada left Spain to 
conquer England. Suppose Jehovah should command 
Queen Victoria to kill every man, woman, infant, and 
suckling in Spain because he remembered this, and 
that she went with an army and did as she was com- 
manded, but saved the king of Spain alive, and that 
Jehovah was angry because she had not killed him 
also : it would not be quite as bad as the conduct of 
Jehovah to the Amalekites ; for they were a hundred 
years farther removed from the crime said to have 
been committed by their fathers. 

Was viler deed than this ever done in the name of 
the child-devouring Moloch ? 

In the time of David, there was a three-years' fam- 
ine in the land. David inquired of Jehovah what was 
the cause ; and Jehovah answered, " It is for Saul and 
his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites " 
(2 Sam. xxi.). Here is a strange story. Saul slew 
the Gibeonites ; and for this God torments a whole 
nation by famine in the days of David. What can be 
done ? Saul is dead, and probably damned. David 
asks the Gibeonites how he can make an atonement 
for the crime done by Saul, and they reply by asking 
him to hang seven of Saul's sons. David hangs two 
sons of Saul, and five grandsons, — the sons being his 
brothers-in-law, and the grandsons his step-sons ; and 
after that we are piously told that God was entreated 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 305 

for the land. After the seven innocent men were 
hung, Jehovah caused the famine to cease : his thirst 
for blood was satisfied. 

Bad as are the representations of Jehovah in the 
Old Testament, those of the New are infinitely worse. 
Jesus, it is true, calls him " our Father; " and we are 
told by John that " God is love : " but such a father ! 
and such love ! Jesus, whom we are assured is the 
representative of Jehovah, tells us that those who be- 
lieve not in him are to " be damned " (Mark xvi. 16) ; 
and those who have not administered to him in the 
person of his believers are to go " into everlasting 
fire prejfared for the Devil and his angels " (Matt. 
XXV. 41). Again : he tells us that " all who do iniquity 
shall be cast into a furnace of fire, where there shall 
be wailing, and gnashing of teeth." There the doomed 
wretches, according to the apocalyptic seer, are to 
"drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is 
poAired out without mixture into the cup of his in- 
dignation ; and they shall be tormented with fire and 
brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in 
the presence of the Lamb, where the smoke of their 
torment ascendeth for ever and ever" (Rev. xiv. 10) ; 
where, as good Dr. Watts so beautifully expresses 
it,- 

" Tempests of angry fire shall roll 
To blast the rebel worm, 
And beat upon his naked soul 
In one eternal storm." 

Jehovah made this hell of horror. Before him stand 
earth's millions, more numerous than her sand-grains. 
He calls up the few, the chosen few, who were mean, 
ignorant, or sycophantic enough to worship him, — not 



306 THE GOD PROPOSED 

one in a thousand : to the rest he turns, and, with a 
voice that shakes the distant stars, he roars, " Depart, 
ye cursed ! " Down drop the myriads, — men, women, 
fathers, mothers, beautiful maidens, noble men ; the 
sweetest poets, the best of mechanics, the boldest 
navigators ; painters whose creations have gladdened 
the eyes of many generations ; musicians who have 
made the air more melodious for all time ; true believ- 
ers, miscalled infidels, who have broken tlie shackles of 
priestcraft and superstition from the limbs of millions, 
— down they go into that lake of fire, to hear Jehovah's 
laugh re-echo tlirough the caverns of the damned, and 
his voice saying, " I told you in my Word tha^ I would 
laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear 
came." And to all eternity the jailer holds his cap- 
tives, and applies his tortures ; for " their worm dieth 
not, and the fire is not quenched." 

This revelation of Jehovah we owe to Jesus, who, 
we are told, is Jehovah in another form ; and he 
frequently anticipates the time when he shall execute 
his wrath upon the helpless victims that shall stand 
before his blazing throne. 

The fact is, that this Jehovah is the idol of a Syrian 
mountain-tribe, that has been foisted upon the rest 
of mankind under the penalty of eternal torments, and 
modified from age to age, but his worst features re- 
tained even to our own day. I arraign him in the 
name of the millions who are held by him in spiritual 
bondage ; in the name of the freemen of America, 
whose enslavement is sought by the incorporation of 
this tyrant's name into the charter of our liberties. 
Away with you, hideous monster, in whom meet the 
worst vices of the barbarous people who made you, 



FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 807 

and the ignorant and fearful who still believe in you ! 
You may do for God of the wolves that prowl over our 
Western prairies and hunt down sick buffaloes, or the 
hyenas that make night hideous in your Holy Land. 
Your name may properly be inserted on the black flag 
of every pirate vessel, between the death's-head and 
the cross-bones. Infinite tyrant, king of miscreants, 
woman-curser, soul-tormentor, destroyer of the world, 
architect of hell, inventor of its tortures, and supplier 
of its eternal fires, go with your co-partner, the Devil ! 
You belong to the ignorance, brutality, and lust of an 
age long past. Go to the hell to wliicli you have so 
long consigned the best representatives of our race ! 
and may your name and history alone remain for a 
warning and a lesson to all generations ! 

I am told that Jehovah was the highest ideal of the 
Divine that the Israelites could form at the time. I 
do not object to this : so Zeus was the highest ideal of 
the Greek, and all Hellas united to do homage to 
their god of gods. Shall we incorporate Jupiter with 
our Constitution, or acknowledge that he is god because 
an intelUgent people once regarded him as such ? 

I have generally argued as if the Bible was a record 
of facts, and its God a reality. Most of you know bet- 
ter. The Bible is no more of an authority to you than 
the Book of Mormon. To you its God does not exist, 
and you may therefore think he is perfectly harmless. 
You may remember that the Greeks besieged Troy 
for weary years in vain, but at length accomplished 
by stratagem what they could not do by force of arms. 
They made a large wooden horse, and filled it with 
armed men, and retreated to a distance as if they had 
broken up the siege, and patiently waited for the re- 



308 THE GOD FOR OUR NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 

suit. The Trojans, finding tlieir enemies gone, came 
out of the city, and soon spied the harmless wooden 
horse. " Let us draw it into the city," said they. It 
was done ; but, that night, out issued the armed men, 
opened the gates to their companions, who had re- 
turned, and Troy fell. 

This God may seem to be a very harmless fellow, 
since he is only a thought god or a paper god ; but, 
admit him into our Constitution, and out will come the 
army of fifty thousand priests that are hidden in his 
bowels, the gates will be opened to our enemies, and 
religious freedom be no more. 



A SEMON FEOl SHAKSPEAEE. 



A SERMON FROM SHAKSPEARE'S TEIT, 

" Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks. 
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing." 



My text will be found in the play of " As You 
Like it," Act II., Scene 1 : — 

" And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing." 

Shakspeare was a mental Argus, whose hundred eyes 
nothing could escape. Men see by their brains still more 
than they do by their eyes ; and his were brains so devel- 
oped that they enabled his eyes to see what mortal 
had never beheld before. He was a walking polyglot, 
with as many tongues as eyes ; what his eyes beheld, 
his tongues had the ability to speak, — ability how 
rare ! He peered through the palace walls and beheld 
the secret deeds of kings ; and there was no dungeon 
so dark but his eye beheld the prisoner. He saw, too, 
the thought of each ; he heard their uttered fancies ; 
he beheld their aspirations, and embodied them in 
glowing language that speaks to every heart. In him 

311 



312 A SERMON FROM SHAKSPEARE. 

the silent trees found utterance, the babbling brooks 
discoursed in rational speech, and the very stones 
cried out with eloquent tongue. 

Nature, the ready-helper of genius, bowed to him, 
and opened wide the door of her domain for his obser- 
vance and appropriation. She whispered her choicest 
secrets into his ear, and found him a worthy listener, — 
a true man, who proclaimed them aloud for the benefit 
of the world. 

I can fancy William Shakspeare, after rambling by 
the banks of the flowing Avon, and watching the pel- 
lucid stream flow over its pebbly bottom, and the trees 
bending lovingly over it, returning to write, " And this 
our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in 
trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, 
and good in every thing." Let us, this afternoon, hear 
these tongued trees, read the books that are in the 
running brooks, listen to the sermons that the stones 
dispense, and find and appropriate tlie good that 
dwells in every thing. 

It is autumn. We lie upon the velv^et sward, and 
watch the squirrels skip. Grand old trees, lordly 
possessors of the soil, how I love you ! You lift your 
myriad hands to heaven, and wave your tinted banners 
in your joy, as if a wintry wind could never blow. 
Generations of leaves have flourished, dropped, and de- 
cayed around you ; but there you stand, renewing your 
beauty from year to year. You have put down your 
radiating roots deep into the soil, have sucked up by a 
million mouths the nourishment needed for your 
growth, and transformed the gross, dark mould into 



A SEEMON FROM SHAKSPEAKE. 813 

the r^gal garments you wear ; and, though the storm 
has swept many a time around you, you have only 
knit your hearts the firmer, and soared daily nearer 
and nearer to heaven. Beautiful I trees, eloquent 
trees ! we listen to your tongues, and we learn your 
lessons. So stands the true man : rooted in the earth, 
watered by its springs, fed by its soil, but using these 
only as a means to climb into the spiritual realm 
above him ; shedding old opinions, false notions, bar- 
barous creeds, as a tree sheds its leaves ; but his firm 
heart grows but the firmer in the right, his aims the 
purer, new and true opinions take the place of the old, 
and he climbs year by year nearer and nearer to perfect 
manhood. 

Down drop the acorns around us. What magical 
globes are these ! The Chinese carve, with admirable 
skill, half-a-dozen ivory globes one within the other ; 
but what are they to this forest-containing acorn ? 
Folded within this shell is that life which makes the 
future tree, its leaves, its blossoms, its fruit, and the 
untold millions of its descendants ; an artist lies sleeping 
here that may beautify a thousand worlds that are yet 
to be. So the truth, spoken or written, is a seed 
endowed with perpetual life, and the power to educe 
new truths and bless the world forever. Error is a 
stake driven into the ground. Every drop that falls 
tends to rot it, every wind to blow it down. All nature 
conspires against it ; and its destruction is certain. 

How these trees struggle upward for the light ! 
How they '' shoulder each other for the sun's smile ! " 
Why are these crowded trees so tall, so straight, and 



314 A SEEMON FROM SHAKSPEARE. 

their trunks so small ? Every thing is sacrificed for 
light. The last words of the dying Goethe are their 
motto, — " Light, more light ! " Listen to that tongue, 
my brother, and learn. Let thy motto be, " Up to the 
sunlight ! " What are riches, broad lands, magnificent 
house, 'honor, fame, when they go with an ignorant, 
undeveloped soul ? Men squat and spread like toad- 
stools under the dripping trees in the twilight, instead 
of soaring like pines to live in the sun's continual 
smile. 

See on these trees the effect of surrounding con- 
ditions. Mark the one that has had light on every 
side : how symmetrical, how beautiful is that tree ! It 
is, as the poet says, " a thing of beauty and a joy Jor- 
ever.'' But mark that tree shaded on every side but 
one, — uneven, warped, lopsided: toward the light it 
grew, toward the shade it refused to grow ; and it 
would rather grow crooked than not at all. Far from 
it is the beauty and grace that go with the proper con- 
ditions for development. Here is an eloquent tongue. 
Tupper says, '• Scratch the rind of the sapling, and the 
knotted oak will tell of it for centuries to come." 
There is a distorted ash, whose ugliness makes the 
raven croak, as it flies over it. The hoof of a flying 
deer trampled it into the earth when it was a tender 
sapling, and it will bear the brand of it while life lasts. 
That criminal you clutch by the throat, policeman, and 
strike with your billy, — he, too, was trampled upon in 
his infancy ; nor is the hoof of society off him yet. 
Lift him up, give him a chance : room for him ! air for 
him ! sunshine for him ! So much is assured : in the 



A SEEMON FEOM SHAKSPEARE. ol5 

great hereafter, he shall have the chance for develop- 
ment that he never had here. This crabbed old 
woman, gnarled as a knotty oak, slanderer, liar, thief, — 
she, too, came to be so by causes. Once she was a 
smiling, prattling baby, the joy of her mother's heart, 
dearer to her than a cherub from paradise. She grew, 
she was tempted, fell, was trampled under the feet of 
the scrambling crowd of on rushing humanity. Charity 
for her ! light for her ! heaven for her, too, where all 
wrongs are at last to be righted, and the crooked made 
straight ! 

There is another tongue in these trees that dis- 
courses patience. The slower the growth, the firmer 
the tree, and the more enduring the wood. " See me 
grow," said the squash to the oak ; " I shall cover a 
rod while your feeble head is rising a single inch." 
So it was : the squash covered the ground for many a 
yard, while the oak seemed an idler ; but there stood 
the oak in its majesty when hundreds of generations of 
the squash had perished. The tree grows by steady, 
persistent effort : so can you. Do not hurry, do not 
idle ; but steadily mount, and success, the highest 
success, is yours. Go into the woods now : how silent 
they are ! Put your ear to the trunks of the trees ; can 
you hear any thing ? Not a whisper : they are still as 
death ; yet engines are pumping, and sap is rushing 
through a million pipes to accomplish a most important 
work. The mandate has gone forth : every tree must 
be clad in velvet-green to greet the dawning spring ; 
and there is but a montli in which to do it. All the 
trees of the forest are busy preparing their new dresses 



316 A SERMON FEOM SHAKSPEAEE. 

in honor of the coming queen. Suppose a thousand 
young ladies were to be furnished with new dresses 
within the next month: what an excitement would 
there be ! what a snipping of scissors, tearing of 
cloth, running of sewing machines,' — yes, and of talk- 
ing machines too, — before all were provided ! And 
yet here are all the trees of the forest making their new 
dresses without contention, without noise, without the 
intervention of a French artiste^ in the good, old- 
fashioned style which can never be improved. 

The storm goes howling by. What a noise ! It 
rouses the world ! " Here am I : listen to me ; see 
what I can do ! " But when it is over, there lie a few 
rotten trunks prostrated by its power. Without blus- 
ter, or even sound, the million-columned woods arise, 
and God's first and best temples are reared. It is not 
the most noisy that accomplish the most. The armies 
march, the music sounds, the cannons thunder. " These 
are they that do the world's work," says the crowd. 
Some thinker in his silent study does more than they 
all. Bonaparte bestrides Europe like a colossus : his 
voice makes every throne tremble ; all eyes are turned 
to him, and all ears are dinned with his name ; but 
James Watt, obscurely laboring to perfect the steam- 
engine, has done infinitely more to change the face of 
the world, to revolutionize society, and, above all, to 
bless tiie human race. 

Cut a tree down, and examine the rings of its 
growth, and you will fiod an eloquent tongue that 
gives the lie to many other tongues. The whole his- 
tory of the tree, and of the times in which it flourished, 



A SERMON FROM SHAKSPEARE. 611 

is indelibly written in the grain of the trunk. Twenty 
years ago there was a cool, short, and dry summer: 
here is the narrow ring that answers to that summer. 
See that expanded circle : fifty years ago there was a 
warm, moist season ; and you see the result. Not a day 
passed over this tree that has not left its record around 
its heart, never to be forgotten, never to be erased. I 
tell you, my brother, my sister, so is it with you. 
Thus we build up the inward man day by day. There 
is not an hour in your history that is not inwoven, in- 
grown into the very constitution of your soul, that 
does not exercise an influence on your destiny ; and 
there is nothing that can make it be as though it had 
never been. I know how common it is for men to be- 
lieve and teach that Jesus can wipe out, at one 
stroke, and in a moment, the consequences of their 
misdeeds, — that five minutes of prayer can remove 
the dark stains of fifty years of crime ; but nothing can 
be more false. Nature tells us this in the grand elo- 
quence of these trees. Do you think that any amount 
of waving on the part of the green leaves, this coming 
summer, can remove the effect of the dry seasons long 
gone by, and expand those contracted rings of growth 
to full dimensions ? When conditions are unfavorable 
for their proper development, where are the Christs for 
the trees, — to remove the scars, straighten the bended 
trunk, and fill out the lean circumference ? These very 
tree-tongues give the lie to this orthodox fable, that 
man can do wrong, thus hindering his spiritual growth 
and cramping his soul, and then escape the legitimate 
consequences of that wrong-doing. 



318 A SEEMON FEOM SHAKSPEAEE. 

Mark, too, the tendency in all trees to symmetry and 
beauty, each of its own kind. Take that young tree 
and hew off its limbs, — reduce it, if you please, to a 
naked, crooked stick. What does it do ? It commences 
instantly to repair damages. The unsightly cuts are 
salved with new bark ; to the right grows a branch, to 
the left a corresponding branch. A spirit of beauty 
presides over it, and employs her agents to adorn it ; 
blossoms expand in their loveliness, fruit is developed, 
and the tree stands at last as perfect as its more 
favored neighbors. There is inherent in all nature 
this tendency to symmetry and beauty. The clay- 
stone no less than the crystal show it in the mineral 
kingdom ; the vegetable kingdom displays it from the 
fucoid of the sea-bottom to the pine of the mountain- 
top ; and is man destitute of it ? He is and is to be its 
most glorious manifestation. Man, though king-curst 
and priest-curst and God-curst, — 

" Though sin and the devil hath bound him," — 

has yet within him that divine spirit which, in spite 
of unfavorable conditions, shall push him onward to 
excellence, toward perfection. 

Were I to tell all that the trees have to teach, how 
long would my sermon last ? By what possibility could 
it ever have an end ? It seems to me, as I go into the 
woods and listen to their tongues, that all other words 
are needless. They are the most eloquent of preach- 
ers ; and, listening to them, we can well afford to let 
all others be silent. Multitudes who throng the piles 



A SERMON FEOM SHAKSPEAHE. 319 

of superstition on Sundays would be more blessed by- 
attending the green temples of Nature, and entering 
into the spirit that breathes from every leaf. 

I watch these trees, and see how they grow, day by 
day, year by year, becoming larger, fairer, as the sea- 
sons pass. But I am told that, when the tree arrives 
at its perfection, — which all may attain in a few cen- 
turies, like the stars when they culminate, — it begins 
to sink, and nothing can arrest its decay and death. It 
is resolved into its original components : it is gone as a 
tree, — entered into the dust from which it can never 
more emerge. And yet, out of the very dust of that 
tree up springs a new one, fairer and brighter for the 
richness of the soil gained from the ashes of its prede- 
cessor. Nor is that all. Extravagant as it may seem, 
I have learned that there is a future life even for trees. 
There is room enough in an infinite universe for all 
the trees that ever blossomed: somewhere they are 
blossoming still. How much more shall there be room 
for the men. They are all living still. A brighter sky 
than we ever saw bends over them ; a more glorious 
sun sheds his rays on their heads ; the winds of benefi- 
cent conditions play around them. Development in the 
grand future is their inalienable destiny. 

But Shakspeare says there are " books in the running 
brooks ; " and we must not listen too long to these 
trees, or we shall lose the lessons that are contained in 
those running brooks. Strange places to find books I 
No less strange, and quite as interesting, are the books 
themselves that we find in this alcove of Nature's libra- 
ry, free for all. There is a book on chronology, and a. 



320 A SEEMON FROM SHAKSPEAEE. 

wonderful book it is: our longest chronological lists 
are invisible when compared with this. At Niagara, — 
one of our brooks, — you see an ocean of water pour- 
ing over the solid limestone into the foaming abyss 
beneath. At Queenstown, seven miles below, the cat- 
aract once was ; and the deep channel between the two 
shows what the water has accomplished, fretting the 
solid rock through the ages. Though fifty thousand 
years were probably spent in the work, yet that is but 
a day in the geologic calendar. But what is this, com- 
pared with the record of other brooks ? The Colorado 
has worn a cafion three hundred miles long, and in 
places more than a mile deep, and for a thousand 
feet through solid granite. Thousands of centuries 
must have been employed in the work. These grand 
brooks are older than Britain and the Druids, Greece 
and Etruria ; older than the mummies ; ay, older than 
Egypt itself, for it is made of the mud that one of these 
brooks laid down ; older than the old serpent and the 
Christians that made him ; older than Noah and his 
wonderful box ; older, indeed, than the Jews and Je- 
hovah, — "the Ancient of days," — their handiwork, 
or, rather, their headwork. These brooks have been 
rolling for ages where they now are, doing the work 
of the world, as they have prepared it for the habitation 
of mankind. 

There is a volume on perseverance in the brooks that 
many might read with benefit. Tliere was a time 
when the Gulf of Mexico extended to where Cairo in 
Illinois now is ; and the Mississippi, by patient perse- 
verance, has filled up the Gulf to New Orleans ; and it 



A SEEMON FEOM SHAKSPEAEE. 321 

is destined to annex Cuba to the United States, whether 
Spain favors the annexation or opposes it. They have 
carried to their graves in the ocean-depths mountains 
innumerable, and are now engaged in ferrying down 
all that remain. Not a day but they lay down part of 
Mont Blanc and Mount Washington, Cotopaxi and 
Chimborazo ; and ere long, by their aid, the ocean 
shall roll over the heads of the loftiest peaks. They 
have made seven miles of fossilliferous rock, and formed 
the grand continents, on whose surface we dwell ; and 
yet the process by which all this is accomplished is so 
gradual, that but few are aware of what is going on 
around them. There is a book on perseverance that it 
will do you good to read, young man, young woman. 
Never despair of accomplishing your soul's earnest 
wish. The very desire to be and to do indicates the 
power to be and to do what you desire : a day may do 
but little, but you have an eternity to operate in. A 
drop a day would drain the ocean in time ; and you 
need never be discouraged. 

I saw a silvery rill descending from the mountain ; 
clear as crystal were its waters, as it leaped down with 
tinkling feet on its mission of usefulness and love. " I 
will stop its babbling," said the Frost, as he laid his 
cold hand upon it, icy as death ; and it staggered and 
grew still. " I will bury it from sight," said the Snow ; 
and down dropped its fleecy mantle and hid the rill 
from my gaze. "Alas!" said I, "for the beautiful 
stream, the envy of the Frost and Snow has destroyed 
it forever." But while I mourned, the south wind 
blew with genial breath, the sun looked through the 

21 



322 A SERMON FROM SHAKSPBARE. 

craggy clouds, the bonds of the rill were broken, snow 
and ice did but increase its waters, and away danced 
its waters more merrily than before. On it sped ; and 
wherever it went the trees arrayed themselves in their 
greenest dresses, they lifted up their heads and waved 
their banners in its praise ; the birds sang to it in their 
leafy bowers, and the flowers kissed it with their sweet 
lips as it ran. But the hills saw it, and they were 
offended. " Why should we allow this vagrant to roam 
at large," said they, — " this leveller, this underminer 
and destroyer of all things old and sacred ? Why 
should we allow it to chafe our sides, and set at defi- 
ance the limits set in the days gone by ? Let us unite, 
and crush it forever." So saying, they encircled the 
brook in their close embrace, and presented a seem- 
ingly impassable barrier to its further passage ; and 
again it was lost to my sight. But, though unseen, it 
was busy as ever, searching every crevice, flowing into 
every cranny, to find a passage through the frowning 
hills. " If I cannot get through, I must go over," said 
the brook. " Ah, ha ! " laughed the hills ; and they 
clapped their hands, and said, " Listen to the little fel- 
low. We have stopped his mad career ; no more shall 
he roam among the trees, and disport himself with the 
flowers ; no more shall he remove the moss-grown 
rocks, invade our sacred retreats, and undermine the 
foundations of ages : his work is done, his life is ended." 
But, inch by inch, and foot by foot, the water rose 
above the woody sides of the hills ; and, reaching a val- 
ley between two peaks, the hills saw, to their astonish- 
ment, the despised brook, now swollen to a river, go 



A SERMON FEOM SHAKSPEAEE. 323 

thundering down upon the plain with tenfold power. 
On it flowed, daily broader, deeper, receiving acces- 
sions from a thousand flowing streams, blessing thirsty 
lands, and administering to man's welfare, till it poured 
at last its majestic torrent into the all-embracing sea. 
There is a lesson for thee, my toiling brother. Start- 
ing from the mountains of truth-loving endeavor and 
manly resolve, what though the world's cold scorn falls 
on thee, and the bitter winds of persecution blow 
around thee, toil on, live to thy soul's ideal. There 
are noble hearts beating for thee, glorious rewards 
awaiting thee. There are no obstacles too high for thee 
to surmount ; the greatest success of which thy soul 
ever dreamed is guaranteed thee. 

But Shakspeare says there are " sermons in stones ; " 
and, while there is time, we must look at some of 
these. You would never forgive me if I did not give 
you some of these sermons. These " hard-heads," as 
the bowlders have been called, are old heads and wise 
heads, and no less eloquent. They preach the longest, 
the truest, the wisest of sermons. These ministers of 
Nature are expounding continually, — 

With magical eloquence, day and night, 
Denouncing the wrong, upholding the right, — 

by the road-side, in the swamp, in the foamiag stream, 
and the ploughed field. They preached to the Indian, 
as he stealthily stole by to shoot the deer at the lick, 
as they had done to the dumb savages, his ancestors, 
who had not learned to form the rudest of implements 
for the chase. These preachers never stammer nor 



324 A SEBMON FKOM SHAKSPEAEE. 

cough ; they never rave nor rant ; they never lie to 
please a congregation, or for the glory of God, as I'm 
afraid some of our gospel preachers do ; they never get 
drunk nor blush for their record : they invariably tell 
the truth, and that is just what we need ; and their bold, 
outspoken utterances have spoiled a thousand barrels 
of orthodox sermons in Massachusetts alooe. Would 
that we were more awake to their glowing utterances ! 
When Shakspeare was living, geology was unknown. 
What wondrous sermons have been preached by the 
stones since his time, that have set the world a-think- 
ing ! Werner, Hutton, Bakewell, Buckland, Lyell, 
Mantell, Miller, and hosts of others listened to them, 
took notes of their discourses ; and their rough notes, 
far from verbatim reports, have re-created the world, 
and bid fair to re-create the next. How silly the Gen- 
esical fable of creation appears in the light which their 
utterances reveal, — the six days of fatiguing labor of 
the Almighty Mechanic, dust-made grandfather Adam, 
and bone-made grandmother Eve, the chatting snake, 
and the cursing God ! In these sermons that the stones 
preach, there is no God complacently congratulating 
himself on the success of his week's work, and, in a 
few days, cursing like a demon because his plans have 
been frustrated. What a story is that to be rehearsed 
in the nineteenth century, with the words of these stones 
ringing in our ears ! There rolls the ruddy planet, as 
it came from the glowing furnace of the sun, a spirit 
within its concentrated lire-mist presiding over it, and 
able to produce, when conditions permit, plant and 
bird, beast and man. We see the solid rock, as the 



A SEEMON FROM SHAKSPEAEE. 325 

world cools, bare, black, and flinty ; and below, the boil- 
ing, turbid waters ; from the deep, where the first rude 
forms of life appear, island after island emerges, lichens 
cling to the rocks upon them, moss-like plants carpet 
them, ferns fringe them, beetles hum over them, and 
fishes go flashing along their shores, or feed upon the 
sea-weeds that spread over the waters their long gela- 
tinous arms. Tree-ferns unroll their fronds, club- 
mosses upraise their columns out of the dense swamps, 
lepidodendrons rear their scaly trunks, frogs hop along 
the margins of the lakes or vigorously swim in their 
waters, while above them dragon-flies flit on gauzy 
wings. Birds appear, rude, gross, stalking along the 
shores, fishing in the waters ; reptiles swimming, div- 
ing, crawling, basking on the rocks, roaming through 
the woods, soaring in the air ; mammals, huge and 
whale-like, follow them, living in the waters ; thick- 
skinned monsters wading in the rivers, crashing through 
the reeds ; horses roam over the virgin prairies ; deer 
feed on the iiewly-developed grasses ; monkeys, the fore- 
runners of men, feed on the luscious figs. Then comes 
savage man, low-browed, brutal, but human : within 
him the science, the art of the nineteenth century, and 
of a million centuries yet to be born ; and, at last, here 
are we, the freest congregation in the freest city, in 
spite of its fogyism, that our planet has yet seen, each 
one swearing that he will not rest till he has made this 
old world better than he found it. 

This is one of the sermons the stones are preaching ; 
and where it is heard, most other sermons are preached 
in vain. Man has been advancing from the start, as 



326 A SERMON FEOM SHAKSPEARE. 

the world had been for so many ages before him ; then 
man never fell, and Jesus was never sent to raise what 
the devil was never permitted to knock down. Good 
and evil flow from humanity by virtue of its nature ; 
the Devil is no longer needed, and his bottomless pit is 
filled to the brim. Jesus descends from the throne of 
his glory and takes his place on the platform occupied 
by his brothers ; and we can say of a thousand living 
men and women, a better than Jesus is here. 

Here, too, is a sermon on progress. From fluid fire to 
solid rock, from shapeless stone to symmetrical crystal, 
from crystal to polyp, from this sluggish stomach at the 
sea-bottom to the active fish, thence to the ground-tread- 
ing reptile, first tenant of the soil ; then life soars in the 
bird, advances toward man in the brute, and reaches 
him only to urge him on to higher and nobler posi- 
tions. We are here with this infinite past beneath us, 
and an illimitable future above us, and ability within 
us to climb the heights apparently forever. All this to 
drop at death back to the dust from which life has as- 
cended only by slow steps for millions of years ? We 
are that we may be. All the past was that we might 
be in the present ; and the present is that the future 
may be superior to it. Progress is not dead, nor God 
asleep. The ages have not sown that death or the Devil 
might reap : neither hell nor the grave is the granary 
of humanity. The everlasting arms are around us : 
over the stream of death they shall bear us, and land 
us in a sunnier clime. 

But I must not preach too long from such sermons 
as these, important as they are. Few geologists have 



A SERMON FEOM SHAKSPEAEE. 327 

dared to tell the truth, — reveal to the world all that 
their science has taught them. Scientists, like theolo- 
gians, are sad cowards. A great effort is made by many 
of them to make these old preachers talk orthodoxi- 
cally ; but the effort is a dead failure. Though many 
geologists seek with obhque vision to look upon old 
dogmas and new revelations at the same time, yet 
others are gaining courage to declare the whole coun- 
sel of Nature. 

Tlie stones are preaching their sermons in the streets 
of Boston to-day. Fort Hill is being cut down, and 
interested people gather to see the gradual disappear- 
ance of one of the interesting relics of historic times. 
Go and see the old " hard heads," as they are scooped 
from the soil by the steam excavator, or lie exposed 
once more to the light of day along the lessening crest. 
They are covered with marks and scratches. Not a 
stone to which they were introduced but left its mark : 
they tell us of the grinding ice-fields of the glacial 
period, when a Greenland winter locked the sea and 
buried the land ; and you may learn from them that 
we have only fairly started to explore the past of our 
planet on which our present stands, and eternity will 
be needed to read what the eternity of the past has 
done. 

But Shakspeare says there is "good in everything." 
What an extravagant statement is this ! Right, Wil- 
liam, right : you, too, were wiser than you knew. Good 
in earthquakes, ground-shaking, rock-cleaving, city- 
swallowing, life-destroying earthquakes ? Certainly. 
By earthquake throes the continents have been up- 



328 A SERMON FEOM SHAKSPEAEE. 

lifted, the mountains reared, and the world adorned. 
We should never have been here in the glory of this 
day, if our planet had not been swept by fiery storms 
and shaken millions of times by the earthquake's jar. 
Their curses are inseparable from their blessings. 

Is there good in volcanoes, those fearful hells that 
spout out glowing torrents that scathe and destroy, 
and with their clouds of ashes envelop cities in ruin ? 
Yes : tliese are the safety-valves of the globe. Weight 
them down, as engineers sometimes do the safety-valve 
of the steam-engine, and but a short time would suffice 
to blow the crust of the globe to atoms. 

Good in pain, that racks the nerves, that clouds the 
mind, — pain, the companion of sorrow, and herald of 
death ? Assuredly there is. If we never felt pain, 
long before we reached maturity our bodies would be 
wrecks : a boy's hands would be burned to cinders 
before he was ten years old. The stomach would be 
injured beyond recovery by our excesses, before we 
were aware of our departure from correct living. 
Pain is a guardian forever attending us : for the child 
it is better than a hundred nurses. The mother's eye 
may wander from her charge ; but pain never sleeps at 
its post. The child, attracted by the glare, puts its 
finger in the flame. Ha ! it starts back with a sudden 
cry. It has learned a lesson that can never be forgot- 
ten. In a world without pain, not one human being in 
a hundred could ever arrive at maturity. Pain, often 
considered man's enemy, is but an angel in disguise. 

But there is certainly nothing good in pestilences, 
that decimate cities and are the dread of nations ? If 



A SEBMON FEOM SHAKSPEAEE. 329 

no other good arose from them, they widen the streets 
of our cities, cause arrangements to be made for sew- 
erage, and cleanse and beautify the close and other- 
wise filthy alleys. The general comfort arising from 
all these may be traced in considerable measure to the 
dread produced by those scourges of the human race. 
The darkest features of some systems are often really 
the best portions of them, when properly understood. 
Ask a Protestant to name the darkest features of Catholi- 
cism, and he would probably say that portion of it which 
binds its members to life-long celibacy. Monk, nun, 
and priest must never marry ; or, if they do, they receive 
the church's ban. " What a horrible system is this ! " 
says the Protestant. Not so horrible as it looks. These 
monks, nuns, and priests are the most superstitious 
members of the Roman church. And how fortunate it 
is that their superstition dies with them, if true to their 
vows ; and the most superstitious are the most likely to 
be. Thus, when superstition culminates in the Roman 
Catholic church, it is cut off forever. If the heretics 
could pass a law, and make it binding, that the most 
superstitious people should never marry, lest their 
superstition should be inherited by their children, 
what an outrage it would be deemed ! Yet, thanks 
to the blindness of the most intolerant of all Christian 
sects, this is just what the church itself does ; and 
there is good here, where we had least reason to ex- 
pect it. When a man becomes as fanatical as a Shaker, 
he ought not to transmit his fanaticism to posterity. 
How carefully the Shaker, by virtue of his faith, guards 
against the possibility of it ! 



330 A SEEMON FROM SHAKSPEAEE. 

But is there any good in war ? There must be, if 
Shakspeare is right ; and I certainly think he is. Where 
did we stand but ten years ago ? The North, a great 
hunting-ground for slaves, and every man by law a kid- 
napper ; forty thousand preachers, and eighty thou- 
sand merchants, on their knees, licking the dust at the 
foot of the slave-power ; the priests quoting scripture 
in favor of and apologizing for the vilest of all crimes ; 
and the merchants defending the practices, that they 
might obtain the custom of the women- whippers and 
baby-stealers. Where are they now ? The red whirl- 
wind of war has swept the whole brutal system from 
the face of the land it insulted so long. Where now 
are those godly Boston ministers who with pious faces 
read their Bible-texts from the pulpit in favor of this 
stupendous crime ? You can scarcely find a man from 
Maine to Mexico who dares lift up his voice in defence 
of chattel slavery ; and the ministers are now hasten- 
ing to prove that they were always in favor of freedom, 
and that Christianity has conquered and gained the 
victory alone ! That war converted more than Chris- 
tianity has done for a thousand years, and at the same 
time converted the Bible. 

The villains that applied the torch of rebellion to the 
temple of our liberty expected to burn the fabric to the 
ground ; but, instead of that, away went rags and scraps, 
hay and stubble, that blind priests and crafty politicians 
had been gathering and piling for years around it. And, 
when the smoke rolled away, there stood the temple in 
its grandeur, and the golden statue of Liberty above all, 
unharmed by the transient fire, and unblackened by the 



A SEEMON FEOM SHAKSPEAEE. 331 

smoke ; and now, within that temple, stands a redeemed 
people. This land has at length become in truth what 
it was only in name, — 

*' The land of the free and the home of the brave." 

This grand stumbling-block out of our way, we take, 
and shall henceforth keep, the foremost place in all the 
world. When I find war assisting so materially to bring 
about such a condition of things, I cannot but agree with 
Shakspeare, that there is '' good in every thing." 

" But the Devil, you know, is all bad," says my 
orthodox brother. Bring him here and we will dis- 
sect him, and I will show you that he has an angelic 
kernel in his heart. A king who has ruled so long 
over the largest population that was ever governed by 
any one potentate, must have some redeeming traits. 
It is only imaginary beings that are destitute of good. 
A soul of good seems to be essential to a thing's exist- 
ence, destitute of which it must die, or rather, it never 
could have lived. If there is a devil, there must be 
good in him ; but since, as the orthodox inform us, 
there is no good in the Devil, it is evident that he does 
not exist. 

Good in death, — the terrible curse pronounced by 
Jehovah on all ? Certainly, and the greatest of good. 
Death, the sick man's solace, the old man's hope, the 
good man's friend, the slave's release, the great uniter, 
the twin of sleep, and the door of heaven. We, as 
spiritualists, see the good there is in death as no other 
people ever did. We have come from the land of 



332 A SEKMON FROM SHAKSPEARE. 

shadows, the gloomy wilderness, peopled by devils and 
lit by the fire of lurid hells. Up we have come to the 
" delectable mountains," fairer than those of which 
Bunyan dreamed ; and we revel in the rays of a sun 
that never, never sets. The prospect is so clear that 
WQ can see beyond the swift-flowing stream the loved 
ones who have gone before ; nay, we can hear their 
cheerful voices, and know that it is well with them, 
and must be well with us. In the light of this new 
morning we can take death by the hand and say : 
Thou art our benefactor, our unchanging friend. 
Sent by a higher life on the most beneficent of all 
missions, when our work is done on earth we will 
greet thee with joy, and look into thine eyes with a 
smile ; for thou shalt usher us into the company of the 
immortal. 

Is there good, then, in all that happens to man ? I 
doubt not that we shall rise in the hereafter to where, 
looking over all the chequered scene of earth's uni- 
versal history, we shall exclaim, from the fullest assur- 
ance of its truth, All is well ! all is well ! 



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